Any Means Necessary
by EiriFllyn
Summary: A selfish and ruthless mundane from Earth gets an experimental Kaleidostick whose only feature is to travel the multiverse. Random travel goes to Worm and gets trapped (for a while). Uses metaknowledge to gain power at any cost. OC SI. Villainous and Manipulative. Eventual Multicross/Multiverse Travel.
1. Initialization 1-1

**IMPORTANT A/N: This chapter underwent a major rewrite on Feb. 17, 2019, at the same time as the publishing of Interlude 2.x (Coil). Returning readers should really re-read it.**

' _So, how do we fight them?_ '

' _I do not have any combat programs installed and cannot answer your query._ '

I resisted the urge to scream in rage. Maybe not having combat programs just meant the Kaleidostick didn't know how to use what it had.

' _What kind of offensive and defensive spells do you have?_ '

' _I do not have any offensive or defensive spells._ '

"Damn! You have got to be kidding me!" I cursed aloud. This was even worse than turning into a magical girl!

What was even the point of wielding a Kaleidostick that didn't have any magic?

 **…**

 **Initialization 1.1**

"May you live in interesting times, boy!" the man cursed at me, and signed the document. He stood up with a snarl, glaring death at the woman standing beside me, and almost knocking the table over, before storming off with his entourage and bodyguards. One person stayed behind, face as white as a sheet.

"Thank you, I truly hope I will." I watched him leave and chuckled to myself. Although it was meant as a curse, I genuinely considered it a blessing.

My lawyer grabbed the signed documents and quickly reorganized them. "Looks good. We have all the paperwork we need," he informed me.

"No…how could this be…? My life's work…stolen by a devil…" The one man who stayed behind collapsed to his knees.

"You should be happy, Mr. Totenheim. I heard you were planning to retire soon. We've simply taken care of that for you."

He screamed and charged at me, but was stopped by my bodyguards. "You monster! Don't act like you're doing me a favor! This was my last chance! I needed the money!"

Through a combination of legal and illegal means, I had persuaded Mr. Kraken to cancel the bridge loan that would have saved Totenheim from defaulting on other debts. Once he defaulted on the usurious loan he had foolishly taken from a dangerous gang, it would lead to a chain of defaults on all the various debts he personally owed and in companies he was invested in, including some debts that I had secretly bought from his former debtors, which would allow me to seize his collateralized assets at a tiny fraction of their true market value.

How did he get into this situation? Well it wasn't all me, I couldn't take the credit for that. That was mainly his uncontrollable spending on luxuries, gambling, and questionable activities.

I stepped in front of him with a scornful expression. "You dug your own grave, Totenheim. All the people you've abused and stepped on, all the atrocities you committed behind closed doors…the police might not have been able to find anything on you, but your victims have never forgotten. Mr. Kraken understood this, but it seems you still don't get it. At least this way, you can try to disappear quietly. There are worse fates out there than losing your hedonistic lifestyle."

"I can't just disappear! They'll find me, and they'll kill me if I don't have the money to pay them back! I'm going to die…!" He devolved into sobbing hysterics.

"Did—did we really have to go so far? He looks so…" A voice whimpered beside me.

I turned to look at the source of the voice, a young woman no older than twenty, perfectly proportioned with a symmetrical face and flawless skin, dressed in a fashionable black leather jacket and red skirt.

I gripped on to her shoulders and turned her to face me.

"This is all thanks to your hard work, Angel. I couldn't have done it without you. As promised, the lead role in _Violet Millennia_ is yours," I said. "Everything is already lined up to make it the biggest show of the decade. Director Solzburg has already agreed to work with us, we have more than $50 million for marketing alone, and I've already arranged for HyperTV to broadcast on a primetime slot. This is it. You're going to become the biggest rising star in the world, just as you dreamed of."

 _Violet Millennia_ , a book series that took the world by storm, was the most anticipated TV adaptation of the year and its production rights were owned by a company Mr. Totenheim had owned a small percentage of shares in. Once I seized those shares from him, it would give me the last bit of influence needed to decide who would be part of the production.

She listened to my honeyed words and her worried eyes relaxed. A bright smile replaced her hesitant expression.

"You two-faced bitch! Your father would be rolling in his grave if he knew what you did! If it weren't for you, John wouldn't have gone bankrupt! None of this would have happened!"

I quickly pulled her away with me and gestured to my men, who dragged the violent and psychotic Mr. Totenheim away.

"I know this is what I wanted…but I'm just feeling a little bad about it now," she confided in a low voice as we walked toward the limo.

"You know how this industry works. My way is the only way you can reach the top without subjecting yourself to the hidden rules. You've already seen the difference between yourself and your old friends, haven't you? Would you have rather have allowed yourself to be stained like that?" I said, escorting her into the vehicle.

"No, of course not. I—I know how much you've done for me," she said, turning to face me from her seat with an intense expression.

"Good. Go on, Angel. Your future is waiting for you," I said.

Her hand rose slightly as if wanting to reach out to me, and her mouth opened to speak. I pretended not to notice, shut the door, and put on sunglasses as I straightened back up.

She rolled down the window as the car started driving forward. "Before I start filming, I want to thank you properly! Please visit me!" She yelled out the window and waved.

I waved back.

Afterwards, I made a call. "How did it go?"

" _Perfectly. The court rejected the restructuring deal once one of the debtors backed out, and approved the joint buyout offer from us. We'll get the pharma business, including the patents on the stem cell treatment we wanted, and the rest will be split up or liquidated. The company is done for."_

These days, wealth was of little concern to me. I had long realized that there were plenty of things that money couldn't buy. Things like game-changing privately owned stem cell treatment research results.

"What about John Colie? Did he agree to sell his collection yet?"

" _Yeah, funny thing about that. He had a stroke at the end of the court session, and was declared dead an hour ago. Because he doesn't know his son's already dead, he never changed his will. And since the idiot son left everything to his girlfriend…"_

"You mean…"

" _Yup, Angel is just going to inherit everything. I swear, that girl freaks me out sometimes. Too many coincidences, you know?_ "

"I see." Many of those coincidences, like the death of the son, weren't coincidences at all. I had known Angel for too long to be fooled like that. She was like me in many ways—almost like a female version of myself.

She was more easily affected by emotion and empathy, but once convinced that a course of action was justifiable and necessary—especially if it was for the sake of somebody she truly cared about—she could do things even I would hesitate at. And she really did have a tremendous talent for acting. That was why we worked together, after all.

The stroke that killed John, on the other hand, was indeed a chance thing. I would have laughed, but I was almost annoyed that it was so easy. Success was good, but I had been looking forward to the final challenge to finish this project.

Damn. Why couldn't he have lived a little longer and resorted to using underground connections? At least that would make things more interesting. No, that was hubris talking. I knew I should be glad that things went as smoothly as they did.

It was just…it felt boring sometimes, compared to when I first started and I had nothing, clawing my way into power and wealth inch by inch.

"We're done here. Take care of the rest of the legal work, I have other business to attend to," I ordered my lawyer.

Soon, I was left with just my three bodyguards, and I called for a car to pick me up.

Twenty minutes later, while we were driving across a section of forest, four black vans came from the two sides of the forest and cut off the road in front of us. We came to a forced break with a heavy turn, tires screeching as men in black emerged from the vans with assault rifles and opened fire.

I spoke too soon, it seemed! Perhaps John really did hire a hit on me.

Our car was bulletproof and heavily armoured, so even assault rifle fire couldn't get through the doors. Unfortunately the glass windows couldn't be made to that strength, so they quickly shattered, and we ducked down.

My bodyguards reacted immediately and returned fire with handguns, but they couldn't aim effectively without moving their heads up.

The driver tried to hit the gas and turn the opposite way, but he was stopped by an explosion that knocked us into the air. They had fired an RPG at our tires.

How did they know where we were going? I must have been careless.

Cursing, I gripped tightly onto the railings under the seat as we landed and shook, all sorts of pain springing up throughout my body as I was knocked around. We couldn't stay in the car or else we would get killed like this. Unless they planned to capture me, that is.

"Get out and use your grenades and flashbangs, then retreat into the forest!" I ordered.

We quickly opened the door on the side not facing the enemy, and exited. The driver was unfortunately too severely injured and we had to leave him behind.

Several grenades and flashbangs were lobbed over, and we ran out from behind the car once the flashes went off.

I ran straight into the forest without looking back, but I heard the cry of one of my bodyguards that must have gotten hit, and the sound of our car exploding behind us.

I tore through the foliage at high speed, then got behind a big tree trunk and use it as cover to turn back and fire on our pursuers. Only two of my men were left with me, and they did likewise.

"Keep going, after me!" I barked out.

We raced through the forest again and kept running for the next five minutes at top speed, until I was completely out of breath and about to collapse. I had almost tripped several times, and in the rush my body was littered with wounds from stray branches and other things that got in my way.

Our pursuers were still behind us, but no longer easily visible and out of options I found a dense section of bush and hid.

My men took off in another direction and maintained periodic return fire, leading them away.

After thirty minutes, I guessed that I lost them. But going out there would be far too risky, they were probably still searching for me, so I simply stayed there and started meditating.

Be careful what you wish for, the old adage said. I wanted something interesting to happen and so it did. Now I was isolated and possibly surrounded by enemies. Was this the day everything would end?

As soon as I tried to get out of the forest, even if I successfully escaped from my pursuers, would they have already destroyed everything I built? Or perhaps I would return to find that somebody had betrayed me and sent these men to eliminate me.

Yet I couldn't help but feel alive. It was the first time I had been in so much danger, and yet it was exhilarating. If only…I had been better prepared.

No, it was no use crying over spoiled milk. At least things would be more interesting now.

I would fight until the very last moment, and that would surely be an interesting story to behold, wouldn't it?

The cold chill of the forest sunk into my bones as I waited. I wondered if they would try to finish me off by carpet bombing or gassing the area.

Just who were they?

I felt so tired and weak. Was I injured somewhere I hadn't noticed? Or maybe it was blood loss from my wounds. I didn't think I had lost much though, had I?

…

Like that, hours passed and I inadvertently fell asleep.

…

"Fascinating...this world is devoid of mana. I can't even feel the presence of Gaia," a voice pulled me out of the darkness.

My eyes darted about, yet my body stayed frozen, and from my hiding spot in the bushes I looked upon the form of a LARPer with white hair in a black caped outfit. From almost 30 meters away I could only see his back and his right hand holding a cane with his left holding a...floating stick?

Yes, it was indeed just floating in the air, a smooth wand-like cylinder that was barely visible in the darkness, with a round gemstone at the top flickering in an unnatural light despite its dark hue and no visible light source.

"It appears that our return trip shall be a bit more difficult from here. I cannot even access prana from our parallel selves. I suppose that makes sense given that this is the first time I've come to this universe." The white-haired man moved his hand away from the wand but it kept floating where it was. He tapped his cane on the ground three times.

"Reporting: Analysis complete. Program compiled. Kaleidostick Agate has acquired Alternate Reality Manipulation Protocol, catalogued as ARMP. First module: User Travel added," another voice rang out from seemingly nowhere.

"Good. You will take the reins this time. Bring us back to our world and we'll finish your programming. I'll have to bring more mana sources the next time we come here," said the man in the costume which I now recognized to be Zelretch from the Fate franchise.

"Understood. ARMP engaged. User Travel initializing. Destination selected: Kaleido Schweinorg Origin Primary. 30 seconds required to construct pathway. Please hold." The other voice said robotically.

Suddenly to the right of the Zelretch RPer the air ripped apart _and the world was creaking_.

A cloaked and hooded being emerged.

"Well, well, I thought there was something interesting here, and look what I found! A lesser being trying to create a means of Walking the Eternities without a Spark!"

My eyes bugged out. Was that actual magic? I thought Zelretch and Planeswalkers were supposed to be fictional!

"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, my friend...what do you mean by walking the eternities without a spark?" Zelretch turned to look at the newcomer, and I got a look at his blood red eye.

The air crackled with a strange pressure as a red light gathered in the hand of the, I guess I could call him Planeswalker for now. "Silence, fool! You've delved into magics not meant for the likes of you! The Blind Eternities are warping under the pressure of whatever blasphemy you enacted to get here! Your home Plane may have powerful beings guarding it from me, but your own pitiful existence ends now!"

He thrust his hand forward and a torrent of blinding fire was unleashed, an explosion engulfed Zelretch and the shockwave blew me up against a nearby tree, and I could feel the roots of the tree straining to stay upright.

In the next moment the night sky lit up and a chain of thunder-like sounds rang out as the explosion grew, new gale winds tearing away the smoke and surrounding trees as something hit my face and finally the tree behind me gave out, roots ripping out of the Earth and I grabbed the thing that hit me even as I tumbled away.

"Urgh!"

I collapsed bonelessly on the ground and twitched before terrible pain racked my entire body.

"I'm sure there must be a misunderstanding, sir. My method of Walking the Eternities as you call it does not disturb the worlds traveled." Zelretch's calm voice pierced the air. I lifted my face up slightly until I could see what was happening.

The cloaked Planeswalker floated with an ominous red light in the air while Zelretch stood at the edge of a massive crater, his clothes looking perfectly unruffled as if that monstrous attack didn't even touch him.

"Warning! Warning! Pathway formation disrupted! Connection unstable!" The Kaleidostick Agate's robotic voice rang out. Except, it seemed to come from...me?

The two combatants shifted their gaze towards me immediately. Zelretch even looked surprised as silence engulfed the destroyed forest.

I cursed mentally. That thing that hit me earlier and which was now somewhere on the ground lying next me must have been Agate.

"Pathetic mortal! Curse your gods for your luck today! For the crime of touching the power of the Planes, die!"

What? This guy was seriously going to kill me for such bullshit? If I got out of this alive I would make him pay a thousand fold! How could I die from such a random event happening?

Before I knew it, Zelretch's back was in front of me and his cane was blocking a black torrent of visible mana gathered in front of the Planeswalker's hand. Up close, I could see the Planeswalker's snarling angry face, which I didn't recognize. Baleful red eyes, sleek black hair, bishounen facial features, and a strange glowing pattern on the right side of his face in the shape of a semicircle over a horizontal figure eight with the top two lines crossing back down instead of meeting at the centre.

He broke away and flew back into the air. "You are strong, little mage, but that will not protect you from a god! Know your place!" Suddenly an enormous wave of mana emerged from him, condensing into a legion of different shapes that blotted out the sky, complete with an Earth-shattering wave of roars.

Zelretch sighed. "I don't wish to be impolite as I am the outsider, but you are being rather unreasonable." He materialized a dagger in his right hand as he moved his cane to the left. The Jeweled Sword started to glow as the world around it bent and refracted a rainbow of lights.

Then he turned around and winked at me.

What?

I had no time to think on what that meant before the horde of summoned monsters came upon us, Zelretch's dagger-sword flashed, and-

—the world went white.

My eyes burned with the sight, and teared up even as the white gave way to a kaleidoscope of strange things I couldn't comprehend.

"AHHHH!" I screamed as I saw what should not have been seen and curled up into a ball whimpering.

After what felt like an eternity, I was left with only silence. I blinked open my eyes and shifted my groaning muscles until I was sitting upright, looking around. The entire forest was nothing more than a wasteland, and only a small circle below me was untouched.

"What, what the hell..." I murmured to myself.

Ominous roars sounded in the distance. I squinted and looked around again, and saw shadows moving in the distance.

The summoned monsters! Then about a hundred metres away from me, monstrous and bulbous things ripped out of the ground and rose up, surrounding me.

I watched in morbid fascination as they climbed up slowly from the ground like zombies. I guess it was really the end. I couldn't possibly fight my way through this horde.

"RandomBystander1, Master Zelretch has authorized me to establish a partnership contract between you and me. Do you wish to become my wielder?" The Kaleidostick suddenly floated in front of me.

Or maybe not. Was this the legendary plot armour? A Deus Ex Machina that would save me! If fictional things were real, then I had to be a main character if I was getting an opportunity like this.

"What does that involve? What are our obligations to each other?" I immediately asked.

"We will conduct a ritual to establish the magical contract and form a soul-based prana link. A wielder can access all of my powers by mental command and share senses. Conversely, you may grant control of your body to me at will. As you do not possess Magic Circuits some functions will be limited. Our obligations are mutual and are as follows: we must protect the other from harm by any means necessary, we must act to prevent attempts to break the contract if either partner is unwilling, neither can harm or seek to harm the other without consent. Once formed, the partnership bond will begin a process of mental and prana-based attunement. If the bond is later broken, there may be unpredictable consequences." The Kaleidostick explained robotically.

That was a very helpful explanation, but it also raised some questions. This contract appeared different to what I knew of Kaleidosticks from the fictional franchise, and the bond seemed to be much more permanent.

"Is it possible for you to have more than one wielder? And can I be bonded to more than one Kaleidostick?"

"Such a course of action has never been tested and would be highly inadvisable. There may be unpredictable consequences, such as sudden death."

Well, that also answered my question about what "unpredictable consequences" might result from the bond breaking.

The monsters seemed confused for a moment, and randomly wandered around, but I knew I was running out of time. Sooner or later they would come for me.

"Alright, I want to be your wielder! What do I do?"

"Please apply some blood to your palm and grab onto me, then repeat after me."

I did as told, using the blood from my wounds earlier. Once my hand touched the wand, two magic circles formed above and beneath me.

The words of power rushed into my mind and I chanted almost in sync with the Kaleidostick.

" **Let black and chalcedony be the essence. Let onyx and agate form the foundation. Parallel and curved, let the bands close and open. Let blood be the tribute, and the Second bear witness. I hereby declare, our will shall be as one. An oath is sworn. I shall attain all the virtues of Heaven, I shall have dominion over all evils of Hell. Through the infinite realities, all lines shall converge!** "

When the chant that Zelretch must have borrowed partially from the Servant Summoning Ritual was over, I felt something connect with me, and both the Kaleidostick and I glowed with a multicolored aura with a line of pure black running through it.

Soon the glow and the magic circles disappeared.

 _'New User Registered. Designated: RandomBystander1. Access Level: Full Administrator. Agate awaiting further instructions_ ', Agate's voice came into my mind complete with subtitles flashing through my thoughts.

"Did you just talk to my mind?" I asked out loud.

' _Yes, User RandomBystander1,'_ Agate answered me.

 _'Why was I registered as RandomBystander1? And what does my access level mean?'_ I thought back.

 _'RandomBystander1 was the designation for you set by BetterThanBlue, also known as Master Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. Full Administrator access allows complete use, read, and write access to all of my functions and programming. He has also left you a message: I am sorry you were caught up in my mess, young man. Unfortunately this enemy is extraordinarily powerful and while I'm no slouch myself, I know not for certain that I can protect you. I am giving you Kaleido Agate to help you escape. Please take care of Agate and I would appreciate it if you could collect some data on alternate reality traveling for me in your journeys. Best of luck to you.'_

Wow! Thanks Zelretch, what an upstanding guy. I can even forgive the troll name he gave me.

' _Okay, I want to change my designation,'_ I ordered.

 _'Request denied.'_

' _What? Don't I have full administrative access?'_

 _'RandomBystander1 has full administrative access except for anything locked by Ultimate Administrator BetterThanBlue.'_

...really?

I almost thought Zelretch's trollish behavior was just merely fanon from how serious he acted earlier. Just great. I better not turn into a magical girl.

No seriously, this was bullshit. I just formed a permanent contract with the Kaleidostick and somehow Zelretch could still override me, even though the wand just told me there could only be one wielder. That made zero sense.

But that wasn't important, the monsters had gotten their bearings and were now advancing towards me.

' _So, how do we fight them?_ '

' _I do not have any combat programs installed and cannot answer your query._ '

I resisted the urge to scream in rage. Maybe not having combat programs just meant the Kaleidostick didn't know how to use what it had.

' _What kind of offensive and defensive spells do you have?_ '

' _I do not have any offensive or defensive spells._ '

"Damn! You have got to be kidding me!" I cursed aloud. This was even worse than turning into a magical girl!

What was even the point of wielding a Kaleidostick that didn't have any magic?

 _'Agate, can you at least get us out of here then? Somewhere without other people?'_

 _'Negative. I do not have any installed transportation protocols other than ARMP: User Travel. This module does not include any targeting function except by Waypoints established during prior travels or semi-random targeting by distance in Kaleidospace.'_

 _'What are the Waypoints available?'_

 _'There are currently 2 Waypoints: this location and Kaleido Schweinorg Origin Primary. Kaleido Schweinorg Origin Primary is currently inaccessible due to destabilization in Kaleidospace.'_

 _'That's it?! We can't go anywhere else?'_

 _'I can attempt to randomly open a Pathway to an unknown habitable world by shortest distance in Kaleidospace.'_

 _'Wait, how can it be random if we target the shortest distance?'_

 _'Kaleidospace does not have fixed locations and distances. A Waypoint is a beacon that eliminates the randomness, but any other targeting method is semi-random.'_

The entire mental conversation took only 10 seconds.

' _Alright fine! Let's go to a random world close to this one then!'_

 _'Understood. ARMP engaged. User Travel initializing. Destination selected: Random by Shortest Distance. 10 seconds required to construct pathway. Please hold.'_

I couldn't help but smirk. Amazing. I hoped this wasn't just a dream. With this power…the possibilities were endless! If I played my cards right, all of creation was within my grasp!

My thoughts went to that unreasonable Planeswalker. My eyes darkened in hate. How dare he look down on me…being born with such power, to be _given_ a Spark for nothing, he was nothing without his good fortune!

Then my hate ebbed away and my eyes gleamed with anticipation. That Planeswalker was just a fool, only worth my attention for the power he wielded. But if not for him perhaps I wouldn't have met such a golden opportunity. In the end, he would become a stepping stone for me on the path to true power. Unless Zelretch successfully killed him, I would likely meet him again, so I had to get stronger as fast as possible. There could be any number of such fanatical fools that would want to kill me for stupid reasons, and the only way to assure my safety was to become more powerful than them! That would be a daunting task, considering the sheer potential that I knew old Planeswalkers had, especially as time was on their side.

I would escape and hide and build up my strength…

It would mean leaving everything behind on Earth. I couldn't risk returning here anytime soon, what with the monsters and the possibility of the Planeswalker coming back.

My money, connections, subordinates…I would have to completely start over. That didn't sound so bad, actually…

It would be an adventure unlike any other! Full of risk and opportunity…and the beginning of a new story— _my story_!

Even if I had nothing again…I would go even farther this time, I would reach beyond the heavens and grasp infinity!

O O O

The trip was underwhelming. One moment I was in a wasteland of a forest in the dark of night, the next I was in an alleyway in a city in the pale light of early evening.

I was still injured and I didn't know how severe the injuries were, so reappearing in a modern city was a good thing, I think. I could walk at least, and it didn't feel like any bones were broken, which was a miracle, or maybe my placebo cultivation exercises actually had some kind of effect? I mean if Zelretch was real, maybe Qi cultivation was real too.

But first things first, gather information and get some medical attention.

' _Agate, can you hide yourself somehow?'_ I transmitted mentally.

' _Yes, I can phase out of sync with this reality to hide or avoid enemy attacks._ '

Excellent, I didn't have to worry about somebody stealing Agate then.

After a few minutes of wandering, I found a newspaper stand. In big letters one of the papers it showed "BROCKTON DAILY".

No way.

I recognized this place from a story I'd read before.

I put the paper back in its stand and left quickly. It was April 3, 2011. That was…seven days before Skitter fought Lung?

I didn't know the timeline perfectly and I was missing tons of details. I only knew the big things, and never even properly finished the canon storyline, so a lot of my "knowledge" was coming from fanfiction.

But I knew at least, that I didn't want to stay here. Changing Taylor's fate, helping to save the world, are you kidding?

Leviathan was going to attack in a month! I'm just a helpless normal, and there was no easy way to power up in this setting. It was be really hard to survive in this crazy grim world, and that was even assuming canon was reliable, which it probably wasn't. Maybe Cauldron had Masters and would come for me as soon as they find out about Agate and magical realities.

Hell, maybe they were _already_ observing me!

Under the setting sun, I rushed to an abandoned alleyway as fast as I could.

' _Agate, can you bring us to another world? This place isn't safe,_ ' I asked.

 _'There seems to be a problem. I have detected a barrier over this Reality Cluster, which is now blocking the formation of a Pathway outside the local Reality Cluster,_ ' the answer came.

What? CRAP! Scion had locked off Earth-Bet and the other parallel Earth dimensions that were part of the cycle, didn't he? Did he notice intruders getting in?

I could feel myself beginning to hyperventilate and my heart pounding in my ears. I was trapped in a world where normals were just fodder, background characters to be wiped out by the billions, mere statistics on a book.

' _My analysis suggests that it may be possible to break through the barrier preventing access to other Reality Clusters. I can continue analyzing in an attempt to develop a method of breaking through.'_

I could handle this! I always wanted excitement, didn't I? It wasn't impossible to survive, and even thrive with what I knew. I had to calm down and think, use my vaunted intelligence and desire, and obtain the power waiting to be grabbed.

Deep breaths.

"Hey, give me your wallet!"

My eyes darted to the source of the voice. A hooded and ragged guy with a knife was stalking towards me from the entrance of the alley.

I narrowed my eyes and took in the cliché scene. I should have expected it though. Brockton Bay was a dying city, full of criminals and a gradually declining economy.

I began to chuckle.

"Fuck, you loose in the head? I'm mugging you, bastard!" He waved his knife menacingly.

My entire body tingled with adrenaline, and I burst forward.

I could see the unlucky mugger's eyes widening as he thrust his knife in front of him reflexively.

Useless. I knew that most criminals didn't have the resolve not to hesitate, they wouldn't know what to do if they suddenly became the hunted. He was a mugger, not a killer, and I–

 _grabbed his knife wrist and twisted, pivoting on my right foot, and using the reactionary force on my hips and another step with my left foot to bounce back and strike his chin with my elbow_

—had experience in violent confrontations against people more dangerous than him.

It was just a shame that I lost my gun when I nearly tripped in the forest on my Earth.

A sickening crunch resounded in the alley, and the pathetic fool couldn't even spit out the blood before I followed up with a kick to the groin. He crumpled towards the ground but I helped him along by smashing his face with a punch. His head cracked against the hard concrete.

I straddled on top of his unmoving body and checked for life signs. He was just unconscious and bleeding from his mouth and head injury.

Ugh, crap, the pains all over my body that I had forgotten with the adrenaline were coming back.

I took off the gloves he was conveniently wearing and put them on my own hands before searching him for useful things. In the end, I took his wallet, some keys, a switchblade, and phone but left his clothes alone. He didn't seem to be affiliated with any gang but I didn't want to risk any buddies of his recognizing the clothing. Of course I took out the sim card on his phone before taking it. It was just a flip phone, nothing compared to my smartphone that I still had with me, but I had other purposes for it.

That done, I made my way out of there and found a nearby bus stop. Within a few minutes a bus came by and I got on, paying with a few coins from the mugger.

It didn't matter where the bus was going, I just went on to grab one of those free transit maps I figured would be hanging around inside of buses like they are on a lot of transit systems back on my Earth.

I was right and examined my new map until I found Brockton Bay General Hospital. Time to see what my options were for fixing my injuries.

This world was full of "capes", also known as "parahumans" with powers. There were superheroes and villains, and organizations dedicated to their regulation and governance. The Parahuman Response Team (PRT), which was made up of normals, and the Protectorate, the cape policing organization. Brocton Bay was on the east coast of the USA, and these organizations covered Canada and the USA, plus some parts of Europe.

If I was to survive this in this world, I needed the power of capes.


	2. Initialization 1-2

**Initialization 1.2**

It was only 5:43 pm according to my new phone, and I could probably get to the hospital in about 20 minutes with a different bus route, so I got off the bus after a couple of stops and began my trip to the hospital.

' _Agate, is it possible for you to bring us to any of the parallel dimensions inside our local Reality Cluster?_ '

With some down time I was able to think through my options. If I could access Aleph or the other parallel dimensions, I would be in a much better position.

' _Negative. Parallel dimension travel is a part of planned modules whose installation is not complete. I will require opportunities to observe parallel dimension travel to develop such a feature, or direct programming input from the user.'_

' _You can learn it? That's great!'_

' _Kaleidostick Agate was designed to be a self-learning tool that would expand its own capabilities. My ability to process information is comparable to an advanced alchemist with Memory Partition and Thought Acceleration,'_ Agate said without prompt from me. I wondered if that was pride at being praised.

' _You know Memory Partition and Thought Acceleration? Can you teach me?_ ' I asked eagerly.

' _My apologies, User RandomBystander1. I do not know those spells and I could not teach you even if I did. My processing is based on an application of the Second Magic, using limited access to parallel analogs of me running in sync or slightly ahead of the current time. They are not the standard Atlas spells. You do not possess the Magic Circuits necessary to utilize any magecraft, so you could not learn the Atlas spells either,'_ Agate explained with a voice that actually sounded regretful.

I sighed. Of course it wouldn't be so easy.

' _So…what else can you do?_ ' I might as well learn Agate's full capabilities.

Instead of a voice respond, Agate seemed to do something akin to sending me data directly.

I saw in my mind's eye a list of capabilities Agate judged both "important" and "unlocked". Other than its reality phasing ability and the universe travelling, it had a sensor suite for detecting and analyzing magical energies and electromagnetic radiation, and it could share the user's senses when authorized. When not sharing the user's senses, it could only use its sensor suite to perceive the world. Anything sensed or shared from the user was recorded and could be accessed later. If allowed to share the user's senses, then Agate could also block mental attacks and even bestow Magic Resistance (unfortunately both features were very limited if the user couldn't generate prana or lacked Magic Circuits).

The core AI was capable of learning by observing, reading, and communicating, much like a human. There were many potential upgrades and functions Agate could develop in time, but we were severely hampered by my inability to perform magecraft.

That was more than I expected, but far less than I'd hoped. I was even a little disappointed that Agate couldn't give me a magical transformation.

It wasn't long before I arrived at the hospital.

There were a lot of people, but nobody gave me a second glance. I was wearing a jacket and casual pants that looked pretty dirty and beat up from the fight that destroyed the park, but I guess that was nothing special considering all the other injured people I saw.

The lobby was clean and bright, the seats packed with people. It was a busy place.

I walked towards to receptionist and was about to speak when I noticed a paper stuck to the bulletin board with important information.

PANACEA OPEN HEALING SCHEDULE, it said. That was convenient. I guess the hospital got a lot of people asking about it. Or wait. More information about Panacea could be found at the New Wave website. So it was part of their PR. Panacea was a miracle healer with her absolute control of biology. Her presence in New Wave was great for their reputation.

Apparently she would be coming in today for two hours starting… a few minutes ago at 6. And there would be open healing for anyone that walked in from 7:30 to 8.

That would be tight. How many people could she see in a mere half hour? Oh well, that gave me an hour to prepare.

Twenty minutes later I had bought a burner flip-phone and was sitting down at a nearby coffee shop eating a quick meal as I browsed the web with my smartphone using free Wi-Fi. I had three phones now including the one I grabbed off the mugger.

Over the next hour of browsing, I learned quite a bit about this world. As far as I could tell, it seemed to be following canon. Browbeat hadn't joined the Wards yet, and all the public information on capes in Brockton Bay matched with what I knew.

That was good, my knowledge wasn't useless. I made my way back to the hospital just before 7:30.

Right on time, a nurse came to the lobby and announced that Panacea would accept walk-in patients now, anyone needing healing should follow her. So I followed her with a bunch of other patients to wait in a line outside a room not far from the lobby.

Another nurse came over and addressed all of us while the first one started to let patients into see Panacea.

"Hello, I am nurse Angela, and I'm here to explain a few things about Panacea's open healing for anyone not familiar with the rules. Please listen carefully," she said as she looked around to make sure she had everyone's attention except for the people at the front of the line being processed by the other nurse.

"Anyone is free to come in for healing, but Panacea cannot accept all illnesses or injuries during walk-in. She is not your family doctor or emergency services. For your own health and the smooth running of our healthcare system, please go to the appropriate medical authority for diagnostics, emergencies, chronic illnesses, or severe injuries. During public healing sessions, Panacea can only perform quick healing on minor illnesses and mild injuries. Additionally, Panacea does not perform cosmetic enhancements. Nurse Jane will determine whether your medical issue is appropriate before letting you in. At 8:00 pm sharp, the public healing session will be over. If anyone is remaining at the end, you will need to come back another day or consult your family doctor," she explained with a clear and authoritative voice before leaving us to wait.

A few people left the line after hearing that. The line moved quickly. Patients were getting healed and shuffled out of the room in less than a minute each. This was pretty efficient, and the line wasn't long either, I suppose because many people would be too lazy to come if their issue was "minor". It was mostly made up of parents with their kids or seniors, and some sketchy looking people – like me, actually.

It seemed like everyone would be done with time to spare, so I started letting people move in front of me.

Five minutes before 8pm, I was the last one to enter.

It was a simple room with a medical bed and Panacea sitting on a chair. Her costume was really white. If she had a staff and lost the scarf I could see a White Mage. Hiding in her hood, she had a fairly plain face with freckles that looked bored. I didn't see any sign of exhaustion that fanfics usually emphasized, but I did feel the "I don't want to be here" vibe.

She gestured to the bed with a plastered smile. "Hi. What can I help you with?"

I sat down and smiled back.

"I fell off a tree, and now my body feeling's sore all over," I said. I got blasted away together with a tree but I _did_ technically fall off of it mid-air.

"Were you saving a kitten?" She asked with an amused tone quirking an eyebrow. There weren't many other explanations for why a man in his early twenties would be up on a tree.

I sighed dramatically. "No, I'm afraid I was the one that needed saving."

She gave me an unimpressed look and held out her hand. "Hmm. Well I need to touch your skin to heal you."

I gave her my hand.

"A lot of bruising all over, some muscle strains, and a few bones are bit loose. Nothing too serious. Do I have your permission to heal you?" She asked.

"Yes." She nodded back to me.

Three seconds later I felt much better.

"Thank you, Amelia," I said in heartfelt gratitude with a textbook Duchenne smile.

"Sure thing—wait, what did you call me?" Her bored eyes came alive in an instant and her hand gripped tightly onto mine.

"Amelia, your name," I answered pleasantly.

"What are you talking about? My name is Amy, and it's Panacea in costume," she said in irritation.

I look in her eyes with a serious but warm expression.

"Amelia Claire Lavere, that's the name you were born with, Ms. Dallon."

Irritation turned to surprise, and she was silent for a couple of seconds.

"What do you know? Who are you?" She asked with a hint of suspicion and interest both.

"I know many things, such as who you were adopted from. I don't have any legal name in the world right now, but you can call me Kaleidus," I said mysteriously. Don't judge me. I couldn't come up with a good name on such short notice, and I didn't want it to be an obviously cape name either, just an unusual but memorable one.

"What do you want?" She asked in a low and almost whispered tone.

"Well I needed healing, and I wanted to give you something in return. I'd be happy to tell you what I know of your heritage if you want," I said. I could see her interest growing. But she was still suspicious that I wouldn't want anything else. After all, there were plenty of reasons for unscrupulous people to target Panacea the miracle healer. "Other than that, I have special knowledge of events to come and certain events in the past."

She gave me a disbelieving look. She must have thought I was crazy considering that I didn't have a Corona Pollentia or Gemma. But I continued unperturbed.

"I know you can tell if I'm lying with your power while you're holding my hand-" she glanced at our connected hands momentarily before her eyes flitted back to me in surprise.

"-and that I'm not a parahuman with the required brain structures, but I definitely have special knowledge of the past and future, or at least, possible futures, that nobody else in this world knows. That's how I know about your heritage. You are critical to this world's future, and I want to help you. It's also true that there are some things only you can help me with."

As I talked, I could almost see the gears turning in her head. My knowledge of her powers couldn't be explained easily, and the fact that I was essentially submitting myself to her lie-detection was quite persuasive.

It was to my advantage that there were many ways of "helping" her. After all, how to help depended on their goal, right?

"How is that possible?" Her grip on me grew stronger. "Did somebody Master you to say all that?"

"No, and I'm sure your power can check for abnormal biological reactions or brain activity showing a Master too," I responded. I was just guessing actually, but it made sense to me.

"Okay. I believe you think you have 'special knowledge'. But how do you know it's real?" She pressed me.

"I can prove it. First, my 'postcognitive' knowledge," I raised my fingers in air quotes as I spoke, "I know things about you that nobody could possibly know. A secret that you've never told anyone." She tensed and eyes widened before looking around the room as if checking for eavesdroppers.

I used my free hand to cup my mouth as if preparing to whisper. Then I moved closer to her ear and did just that, "Your _special_ feelings for Victoria."

She froze. Her grip on my hand was so strong it was starting to get painful. And it was shaking. I felt a gleeful anticipation as I watched her. Yes, this girl had very dark secrets. Panacea the miracle healer, the kind, saint-like cape that everyone admired had a secret that was tearing her apart inside.

She lusted for her own sister.

"W-what are you talking about, don't bullshit me with vague-!" she hissed.

"I won't tell anyone. And you're not a deviant. It isn't your fault and there's nothing wrong with you. Something caused those feelings in you, but you're not ready to learn just what yet."

"You're lying! Stop messing with me!" She tried to let go of my hand and stand up. But I grabbed her hand myself and stopped her.

"If I was, you wouldn't be reacting like this. You know exactly what I'm talking about and that I'm telling the truth."

She glared at me and bit her lip.

I put a hand on her shoulder and gently guided her back down onto her seat. "Look, I told you I wanted to help you. I didn't say that to blackmail you. You have a key role to play if this world is going to survive." She kept glaring at me and stayed quiet.

 _If_ this world is going to survive. Only if it were better for me, of course.

After a moment, there was a knock on the door, presumably the nurse reminding Panacea of the time. I sighed. "On April 11th, Lung will be defeated. Armsmaster will take credit for the capture. You'll be called in to keep him stable. Here's my number if you want to get in touch." I took out a piece of paper and quickly wrote down my burner phone's number, putting it in her hand.

I patted her shoulder and prepared to turn and leave but this time Panacea grabbed my wrist again as I stood up and stopped me.

"Who…who were my parents?" She asked with her head looking down.

I paused. "Your father was Marquis. Your mother, I don't know. The Brocton Bay Brigade attacked Marquis in his home and he was defeated trying to protect you when the Brigade realized he was protecting something hiding in the closet."

"The daughter of a villain…?" I heard her muttering in a defeated voice as she dropped my hand and stood still.

Marquis was a very successful and powerful villain. He was the only parahuman in his gang but managed to fend off the likes of the Slaughterhouse 9 and the Teeth. His ability to generate and control bone was extremely powerful and versatile, which made him unbeatable before the Brocton Bay Brigade took advantage of his two weaknesses. He had a rule not to hurt women and children including enemy combatants that fell into those categories. And he had a daughter he genuinely cared for.

I lifted her chin up to face me. I could see her eyes beginning to tear up.

"Listen to me. You are not a villain just because your father was. That's Nazi thinking, and Carol should be ashamed of her prejudice. You are one of the most powerful and important heroes in the world."

Carol was traumatized from her youth and despised Marquis for irrational reasons. She never wanted to take Amelia and basically never treated her as a daughter despite adopting her legally.

Even worse, Amelia had once overheard Carol say that. That she never wanted her.

There was another knock on the door. We could hear a voice calling from outside, "Um, Panacea? The session was already over several minutes ago. Is there a problem?"

The girl wiped her eyes quickly and called back, "No, we're done here." She opened the door and walked past quickly. I followed after, getting a disapproving look from the nurse.

I looked away and walked quickly. Then when nobody was there to see it, I smirked. I felt great. This was almost certainly the canon storyline I was in.

Knowledge was power, and I had it.


	3. Initialization 1-3

**Initialization 1.3**

The next few days passed in a whirlwind. Before enacting the rest of my plan I needed to secure money, food, and shelter. Without a legitimate ID things would be difficult, and with the underground essentially controlled by capes, it would be exceptionally dangerous for me. Not to mention I didn't have any real experience dealing with underground activities and criminals, nor did I want to run afoul of patrolling heroes.

That's where the mugger's phone came in. I didn't need to be tracked by the cell signal so I turned off all network features, but even without network access it had an address book with contacts and text history. It gave me insight into what kind of person he was. A man living by himself in his early twenties, no contact with any parents, few friends, and no job. Typical profile of an inexperienced robber. That was obvious enough when I didn't find a gun on him, but this was good confirmation.

I must have been a target of opportunity, or else I wouldn't have found a wallet on him with identification at all. Luckily, I did, and tracked down his address to his dingy little apartment in a dirty and paint-shedding low-rise. Before that, I spent the rest of my ill-gotten gains on some very basic equipment: pepper spray, an old backpack, a nice worn down hoodie, sunglasses, and used shoes. It wasn't much but time was ticking and I had to finish before he came back with a spare key or locksmith.

It was unexpectedly quite a smooth venture. There were no security cameras in the hallways. I went in to find the apartment empty of people, as I expected. But just in case, I had sent in Agate to phase through and check first, of course. I grabbed a notebook computer and found nine hundred dollars in cash. No firearms, which just shows that he was not a professional robber. I left the drugs, alcohol, and pretty much everything else alone except for a bit of non-perishable food. I couldn't even recognize the drugs so they weren't useful to me, and rubbing alcohol was purer and easier to just buy if I wanted to make something with it. Food was useful…it might be cheap but there was no sense in wasting money when I didn't have a sustainable source of income yet.

Next was shelter. That first night I bought a sleeping bag and camped out in an abandoned warehouse. The day after I went scouting for a more suitable location for temporary living. I wasn't going to be here when Leviathan attacked, but I would be staying for a few weeks for sure. I needed privacy and access to electricity and water so I spent the entire day looking for someone willing to rent a room to a guy with no ID and paying in cash. I was obviously sketchy, but there were plenty of sketchy landlords out there, and in this awful economic environment, it wasn't too hard to find someone willing to look the other way. It'd be $500 a month, but I got a tiny apartment close to the docks with access to a private washroom and kitchen. The landlord had multiple unoccupied rooms and barely bother to come by, which was just fine with me. After paying the first month, getting the lock changed, and buying the minimum tools needed for cooking and hygiene, I was left with just over $300.

Then I cracked and cleaned my new laptop to make it that much harder to track down if the mugger decided to go to the police at some point. I was keeping the hardware so if someone got their hands on it physically, I could be tracked, but that wasn't a serious issue then. Changing the MAC address and wiping the soft traces would be enough. I just needed to set up my anti-forensic measures afterward to stay anonymous on the web.

Agate learned the process as I did it, but unfortunately the Kaleidostick couldn't interface with electronic networks and devices like an actual computer AI. It could learn to connect and access them without a physical connection, but Agate didn't know how to process the complicated electronic signals. That would have to be built literally from scratch and my few experiments showed that it just wouldn't work due to the extreme inefficiencies and incompatibility involved. It was akin to manually pressing a switch to indicate ON and OFF signals. Ridiculous waste of Prana.

For money, I visited the local casinos, of which there were two. I bribed the guard to let me in without ID, and played poker to make some money. Blackjack was continuously reshuffled at Ruby Dreams so counting wouldn't work, but good old poker wasn't against the house. I was a bit concerned that the games would be rigged by the ABB or I would be accosted at some point, and I did notice people collaborating, but I carefully targeted the fish instead of stepping on the toes of anyone that might be connected to something bigger.

Making 10BB/Hour or so, I worked my way up from $1/2 No Limit to $5/10 NL and made $700 over three days at Ruby Dreams. In Brocton's other casino, Blackjack was traditional, and I walked away with another $2200 after two days of playing combining Blackjack and $10/20 NL play. I could have hit them hard on BJ but I had no idea who operated this casino and was not about to risk getting marked and attacked by being greedy.

If I was hurting for cash, I could hit other cities later, but if things went well I wouldn't need to.

I spent the rest of my time writing down notes on what I remembered from Worm, plotting out potential courses of action that would help me survive and grow stronger, and researching information about other cities and background information about differences between Earth Bet and my Earth. All this was recorded by Agate, and I destroyed my physical notes afterward.

My goal in the short term was to amass as much power and useful allies as possible and survive. Over the long-term I needed to solve the universe barrier problem and obtain advantages that would make me stronger and more survivable in other universes. That meant increasing my abilities, acquiring tinkertech, and upgrading Agate.

To speed up analysis of the Reality Cluster barrier and have Agate develop the ability to travel parallel dimensions, I needed to get Agate data on portals. Professor Haywire's portal and notes were highly classified and I couldn't find its location. That just left Doormaker portals, which I had no way to find, and the Simurgh portals in Madison. The latter I could get to fairly easily, and with Agate capable of phasing out of reality it could easily get past quarantine controls. Even better, Agate could move independently from me and was capable of flying at over 500 miles an hour when moving by itself. Once Agate recorded my notes, I sent it off to the Madison Quarantine zone and 9 hours later it was back.

' _Reporting: parallel dimension portal phenomenon has been observed. Estimated 7 days to complete analysis and develop parallel dimension travel capability,_ ' Agate had notified me. It would be ready by the 13th, two days after the Lung fight. No estimates could be made yet on breaking through the barrier.

Tinkertech could be acquired if I had large sums of money or Tinker allies. That was fairly straight forward. There were some Toybox techs I really wanted to get, and could possibly commission Leet for some stuff as well.

Abilities were the hardest to acquire. I eventually determined that there were several ways of enhancing myself:

 **Get Panacea to make body modifications for me**

 **Buy skills/memories from Cranial**

 **Buy a vial from Cauldron/the Dealer/Accord**

 **Steal the cauldron vials Skidmark finds after Leviathan (which might not even happen anymore if it was pure chance that led him to it the first time)**

 **Get Bonesaw to make body modifications for me**

 **Find Eden's body and figure out how to make vials for myself**

 **Hang around a cape long enough for it to bud in me and get myself into a trigger event**

 **Kill the Butcher**

All of these were possible, but none of them would be easy, and the ones lower on the list carried huge risks I was not prepared to accept. Cauldron vials—especially the older generation ones—could turn me into a Case 53 (monster capes who often didn't have control over their powers). The latest generation ones with Balance in their formula still had something like 0.1% chance of becoming a Case 53, which I still thought too high for comfort. That was only slightly lower than the chance of drawing pocket aces, which any poker player could tell you was not that rare.

Triggers couldn't be induced on purpose so I'd have to be in real danger or make myself forget the plan to trigger myself, and killing Butcher would probably kill me mentally when all the voices transferred to my mind. Maybe if I got Bonesaw to help clone original Butcher like she did with the Slaughterhouse 9000, simulate its trigger, and wipe its mind with Cranial's tech before I killed it…

In any case, acquiring abilities had to be a low priority if only because of how difficult and risky it was. That just left my goal of getting funds and allies. Moreover, I had to establish myself right away. My knowledge would be far less useful once events diverged from canon. Without precise predictions, it would be that much harder to convince anybody I had true precognitive knowledge. I had only a small window of opportunity, and if I didn't maximize my gains right off the bat, I would just be a helpless normal that knew a few secrets.

Hmm…

* * *

I was going to try and recruit Skitter. It wasn't because she was the main character of worm. It was just that her bug controlling power would be very helpful to my ambitions in this city, especially if Panacea could be persuaded to cooperate. That was easier said than done, however. She was lonely girl and desperate girl, but a recurring theme in canon was her stubborn, distrustful, self-rationalizing habits leading to some really bad decisions. It was a miracle that Lisa managed to become her best friend despite being more or less Emma 2.0 to everyone, I thought, or maybe it was just her power helping. That was another problem – I could easily imagine Lisa working against me for control of Taylor, and facing a Thinker 7 in social combat with no powers of my own wouldn't be fun. That was a threat rating by the way. The PRT used such ratings from 0 to 10 to rate powers. Basically nobody had a 10 for a rating, and so 7 was very high on the scale. The Thinker category meant a mental power related to information gathering, precognition, extra senses, etc.

On April 7th, I began to move out and scouted out the Central Library and Winslow.

Something I had learned about Agate's reality phasing ability with a bit of experimentation was that it couldn't take live organisms like humans with it. Anything made of living cells would die when exposed even partially to the space that Agate phased into. However, Agate could take inanimate objects and electronics as long as they were securely attached to it. Things that were phased out still interacted with each other under normal physics but they were invisible, insubstantial and basically couldn't interact with anything in the real world. On the other hand, whatever Magic that powered Agate's functions still worked normally, as a result its sensor suite could still capture data without actually interacting with particles or waves in the real world. Thinking about it, wasn't that a violation of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle?

These facts, combined with the way Agate had been using data from my shared senses to enhance its ability to process sensory stimuli, meant that I could attach a bunch of tiny spy cameras and recorders to Agate and send it off to secretly plant bugs (no-pun intended) in Winslow.

By noon, I had Agate mapping out the school building so it could go back and plant the spy cameras overnight. It cost me a hefty $600 to get these things plus a remote controlled robotic gripper I needed to attach to Agate and manipulate the bugs, but I was pretty sure I'd get my money's worth out of them. Winslow was just practice really.

When school was out, I had Agate tail Madison to her house.

The next day was the start of Taylor's story. I had my feeds ready in the girls' washroom, waiting for the right moment.

I watched my live feed from my cam network starting at noon, lunch period. Seeing her up close, going into a washroom stall to eat, it was really sad. Of course, I didn't have a feed into her stall, I just needed a good angle to capture the trio dumping juice, so I was positioned near the window facing the door.

A good 25 minutes later the door banged open and I saw the trio coming in. Emma, Sophia and Madison, with the first two smirking viciously and Madison with a stiff smile on her face.

There was some giggling and whispers before Emma went over and knocked on Taylor's stall door. After a couple of knocks, Taylor's voice came out, saying "Occupied".

"Oh my god, it's Taylor!" Emma exclaimed in mock surprise. Sophia whispered to her, then Emma replied, "Yeah, do it!"

Well things played out exactly like I read before. Juice was dumped in, door blocked, Taylor and her bag getting messed up before her bugs swarmed into the washroom with her anger after the girls left.

It was pathetic. At least Tattletale's bullying habits had a purpose to them, an advantage gained (usually). This year long bullying campaign did nothing but make enemies meaninglessly. Now their foolishness would serve my purposes.

At midnight, Agate was in Sophia's bedroom. Through our mental link, Agate was sending me the visual and sound. This mental data couldn't be transferred to electronic form, but that wasn't why I was here.

My remote controlled robotic gripper was attached to Agate, and we floated over to the desk beside her bed. With a slight whir, the gripper came to life as I piloted it to grab the old cell phone, and immediately had Agate phase out.

Sophia shuffled on her bed, but made no other indication that she noticed.

A few minutes later her phone was in my gloved hands and I used another camera to capture images of all the incriminating texts Regent of the Undersiders would have found later on. This wasn't hard evidence the way that emailing the texts with an electronic trace would have been. However, if I grabbed the phone once, I could easily do it again when that became necessary. Unlike Regent, I wasn't going to alert the police or school just yet.

Next, I had Agate return Sophia's phone, before moving to Madison's room. After dropping off a USB drive beside her night lamp, I ordered Agate to hide under her bed and begin projecting a ghastly and distorted voice into the room.

"MADISON CLEMENTS," it said.

I had to repeat it a few more times before she groggily woke up and looked around.

"MADISON CLEMENTS," she finally heard while awake.

She sat up and blinked owlishly. Nobody else was in the room with her.

"YOU'VE BEEN A NAUGHTY GIRL," the voice continued.

"What?" She turned on her night lamp and looked around some more.

Agate phased out and moved below her desk.

"YOU HAVE BEEN JUDGED AND FOUND GUILTY," the disembodied voice reached her from another direction.

Her eyes widened and she stood up. "Who is this? What are you talking about?"

Agate moved again to her closet out of phase before re-entering the real world hidden inside.

"LOOK DOWN. SEE THE EVIDENCE OF YOUR CRIMES."

She looked down and noticed the USB beside her lamp.

Taking it in her hands, she walked to her desk and booted up her computer. While it was booting, Agate was silent. Madison stood up again and went to the closet where she thought the voice had come from last. By the time she opened it, Agate was gone again and she saw nothing useful.

"Are you a cape?" She closed the closet and asked the air. She seemed almost excited about it. Guess I wasn't being scary enough.

I didn't bother answering.

She huffed and went back to her computer, plugging in the USB. Clicking on the auto-run prompt, a cleaned video of the washroom incident began playing on her screen. Alongside the main video, pictures of incriminating texts between Sophia and her popped up one by one until her screen was filled.

When the video ended and closed as the trio left the washroom, Madison sat with her mouth agape. My program activated in the background and shredded the data on the drive, replacing the old data with garbage 0s and 1s twenty-seven times to military standard, and forcing a memory wipe on her computer before shutting it down.

"You recorded in the girls' washroom? That's illegal! You creep!" She ripped the USB drive out of its port.

"WHAT I DID DOES NOT CHANGE YOUR GUILT. THE EVIDENCE IS CLEAR. YOU HAVE BEEN PERPETUATING A YEAR LONG BULLYING CAMPAIGN."

"Why did you show me this? Why not just report it if the evidence is clear?" Madison asked as she clenched her fist around the USB drive.

"IN JANUARY, TAYLOR HEBERT WAS HOSPITALIZED AFTER BEING STUFFED INTO A LOCKER FILLED WITH USED FEMALE HYGIENE PRODUCTS. NO WITNESSES CAME FORTH, AND YOUR ATTEMPTED MURDER OF A TEENAGE GIRL WAS OVERLOOKED."

"Attempted murder? I had nothing to do with that!" Madison looked around in a panic.

"YOU WATCHED AND MOCKED THE VICTIM AS SOPHIA FORCED HER INTO THE LOCKER, THEN LEFT HER IN THERE TO DIE."

She stood up and almost knocked over her chair.

"There's no proof! You can't prove that! That's why you're here, trying to scare me," She said quickly, looking at the USB drive clutched in her hand in front of her chest as if coming to a realization.

Suddenly a sharp edge materialized on her throat. She froze, eyes darting down but unable to see the blade pricking at her skin from that angle.

There was a knife currently attached in a hook-around angle to a Agate which was positioned directly behind her head.

"I do not need proof to end your worthless life," the voice changed to a raspy hiss projected right behind her.

"W-wait! Don't kill me!" Madison pleaded with a squeaky voice.

"Why shouldn't I? You didn't take mercy on Taylor Hebert while she was pleading in her locker," I said through Agate in hateful spite.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! I was scared, if I said anything Sophia and Emma would have gone after me! I never planned or helped with the locker prank, I swear!" She was openly sobbing now and eyes shut as tears formed.

"Are you saying it was all their fault and none of yours?" I demanded while order Agate to shift slightly in order to press harder on her throat with the knife.

"I—n,no, I should have stopped them, but I c-couldn't! You don't understand—Sophia—she's crazy! She would have turned on me next! I didn't know what to do!"

"I understand perfectly, Madison Clements. If you want to repent, then confess your crimes and those of Emma Barnes and Sophia Hess to the police! Gather the evidence from your own texts and emails, and submit them all to the police," I ordered in a calmer, more authoritative voice.

"B-but, what if Sophia comes after me?" She sniffed as she asked.

"She will get what she deserves…one way or another. If you repent and confess, you need not fear anything from her."

She swallowed hard and agreed, "O-okay, I'll do it."

"And do not mention me! Remember, I can find you anytime, anywhere, and you wouldn't even know. You will go to the police first thing tomorrow morning. Do not waste my mercy!"

Agate dematerialized and Madison crumpled to the ground as her knees gave way.

Before we left, I watched her grasping at her throat as she cried softly.

* * *

I patted myself on a job well done as I monitored Madison the next morning. With the USB drive still in her room, she shuddered and realized last night was no dream. In the end, she went to the police with no more reminders from me.

Whether or not the investigation worked in the end didn't matter as long as the police showed up to Winslow on Monday. I still had moves to play if the PRT tried to suppress it. I didn't think they would, but since Regent never took over Sophia, they might reason that she's still useful. Sophia was also known as Shadow Stalker, a member of the Wards, you see. The youth superhero training program operated by the PRT and Protectorate. Except, it wasn't really a training program. They needed bodies to fight crime and the Endbringers, and Sophia's power had really good combat uses.

Either way, I only wanted two things. To appear to be helping Taylor when she finds out I did it, and delay her from talking to the Undersiders on Monday so that I could get to her first. But I had to contact her after the Lung fight. I wasn't going to interfere before that fight because she barely survived in canon, and I didn't want her to die by butterfly effect with one wrong move. And I had little interest in participating with her during the fight as it sounded like a good way to suicide together. I was still risking her death by random chance, but I had also predicted it as proof for Panacea so I was counting on it happening exactly the way it did before.

The cold hard fact was, Taylor might have been the main character of worm, but Panacea was orders of magnitude more valuable, particularly if I could eventually take other people with me to other realities and their powers still worked. That was something I seriously had hopes for, now that I knew Entities could somehow manipulate a barrier that affected an entire reality cluster, not just parallel dimensions.

Recruiting Skitter after she joins the Undersiders would be hopeless. I had to give her another option before then.

Everything was going well, until Panacea called me late at night on April 9. She wasn't supposed to be contacting me until after Lung was captured.

"Hello?" I spoke groggily into the phone after being woken up.

"Kaleidus?" Panacea's voice replied to me in between sniffs and pants.

"Amelia? I wasn't expecting you to call for another couple of days," I answered.

"I need to talk to you. Can you meet me now?" She asked out of the blue.

"You want to meet a guy you only met once in the middle of the night? Are you serious?" I responded dubiously. I think I knew what was up, but I couldn't rule out this being trap for New Wave to corner me.

"That's—you make it sound—it's your fault damn it!" She angrily shouted. "You said you wanted to help me? Well I need your help now!"

"Fine, I'll come over. Where are you?" I relented.


	4. Initialization 1-4

**Initialization 1.4**

I found her sitting on a bench at the boardwalk carrying a big and packed backpack, in a nondescript hoodie and jeans. This was starting to look really bad. At least she had the sense to go somewhere without much gang activity. It was 2AM but there were still some people hanging around in the area for the nightlife. The boardwalk had enforcers though, so it was safer than my neck of the woods at the docks.

"Hey," I said as I plopped down beside her. "So what did you want to talk about?"

She glared at me with puffy eyes underneath her hood.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked sharply.

"What? What haven't I told you?" I asked bewildered. I thought for sure she was blaming me for telling her too much.

"Vicky's aura! That's what you meant before! The thing you said I wasn't _ready_ to learn!"

Oh. _Oh_. She figured it out.

I looked at her seriously. "I'm sorry. I didn't know for sure if that was the reason for your feelings. And I don't have any way of stopping the effect right now, so I didn't think it would help you if I told you about it."

Victoria Dallon, also known as Glory Girl, had a power to make people admire her, or if fear her if they had a reason to be intimidated. There were theories that Panacea's romantic feelings toward her adopted sister were a result of long-term exposure to the aura, particularly during puberty's onset. Those theories were never confirmed in-story, but it made a lot of sense. Plus Panacea was too old at adoption for the Westermarck effect to be relevant.

Her face shrunk back and lost the anger. She looked down despondently. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"What happened exactly? Why are we meeting in the middle of the night, and what did you mean by it was my fault?" I asked, glancing towards her backpack.

Her lips quivered as if trying to come to a decision. After a moment, she talked.

"That day…I went to clear my head before going home. I got back late…and Carol got angry when I didn't explain anything. I asked her about my father, and we got into an argument. Then I saw Dean at school the next day and he tried to do his therapy bullshit on me, and it just pissed me off more! I started researching into Marquis, and…" She trailed off staring at the ground, and I just silently watching her from the side waiting for her to continue.

Dean Stansfield was Victoria's boyfriend, which naturally made him the target of Amelia's jealousy. This was compounded by the fact that he was also Gallant of the Wards. He had the power to sense emotions and generally tried to live up to his name…hence his attempts at being the understanding amateur therapist, which actually worked quite well on everyone…except Amelia, for obvious reasons. He knew that Amelia had "strong" feelings about him, though in the original story it was ambiguous whether he thought Amelia was jealous of Vicky and liked him, or actually knew the truth. I was sure Amelia interpreted it as the former though, which made her all the more resentful of his arrogance. As if some tool of a knight could compare to Vicky. I wondered what she would think if I told her the gallant hero never even had a traumatic trigger event and bought his powers with cash. Something to keep in mind…

"I started to remember things. How he read me bedtimes stories, made dinner…how he took a hit from Brandish to protect me. Then Carol confronted me at home again and pressed me to tell her who told me. I didn't tell her, but she found out about you anyway after she talked to Jane at the hospital." She shot me a look. "I got grounded until she could track you down."

"Ah. I take it she didn't succeed?"

That Amelia still had good memories of her father was no real surprise. The way that Marquis went down had always struck me as dubious, especially considering his temperament. Generally capes in this world followed "unwritten rules", one of which was that cape didn't attack each other's families and civilian identities. Brocton Bay Brigade had a plan, called the New Wave Movement to reveal their identities and convince other heroes to do the same, in the name of accountability. They also attacked Marquis in his house. The result? Marquis was defeated but Amelia was the victim.

Eventually the Brigade renamed themselves New Wave, and one of their members Fleur got killed when her civilian persona was targeted. I would have called it karma except I don't believe in that.

She snorted. "Of course not. My public healing sessions don't need ID. What could she do? Demand to trace your face by the security cameras because she was suspicious that you took too long to heal?"

"Mmhmm. So what happened next?"

She turned sombre again. "Vicky tried to defend me but she was also suspicious of you. She tried to cheer me up but it didn't work. I just kept thinking—about her—about—how she'll never..." She bit her lip. "I shut myself in my room. My volunteering sessions all got cancelled while I was grounded. And I…I actually felt relieved. What kind of horrible person was I, to be _relieved_ that people that needed me would continue suffering, maybe even die, because I wouldn't heal them? But I was just so tired of it. There's always more people to heal, and it's never enough. Never enough for Carol," she said spitefully.

"There's nothing wrong with that, Amelia. You have a life of your own to live, you don't need to act like a saint and spend every moment healing," I put my hand on her shoulder and tried to reassure her.

She didn't respond to my touch except to continue. "I don't know what got into me. When I had nothing to do in my room, I started thinking about my father again. And then I…I started making a sculpture of him from my memories. I turned the plants in my room into bone for materials."

I had a sinking feeling about where this was going. But some part of me also felt excited. If Panacea's relationship with New Wave soured too quickly, a lot of my potential plans would be messed up. New Wave was useful in many ways: give me credibility by association, extra manpower to fight my villain targets, Carol as lawyer to sue the PRT for Taylor or defend my vigilante actions, etc. On the other hand, I could make Amelia mine that much sooner.

"I had broken one of my rules, to use my powers for healing only…but I couldn't stop once I started. I promised myself it'd just be this once, and I wouldn't do it again. At first I was just reshaping the bone, then I started changing its texture and modifying bacteria to color it. I'd spent hours on it trying to get it to look just right even with my vague memories…I didn't even notice Carol coming in," her voice lowered to a whisper.

"And she didn't react well," I supplemented for her.

"No, she didn't. She…destroyed it and hit me. She said that was why she never told me about Marquis. She knew I'd follow in his footsteps. She had to keep me from becoming a villain, stop me from associating with the wrong people," She narrated quietly.

"That's awful, you're not a villain for using your powers to make a damn sculpture, and you aren't going to become one," I told her. I wasn't sure if she even heard me.

"Then Vicky flew in to save me like an angel…beautiful, wonderful Vicky, always there for me…" her voice became haunted and she started sniffling again. "But then I realized…that was her aura on high power. I never became immune to it…just used to it at low amounts. All that time…it was her aura! Suddenly I became afraid of her, and I started panicking. I could barely think straight with her aura so high. I tried to tell her to stop but nothing came out," she said as she pressed her hands onto her face.

I had to admit that would be one of the worst ways to find out about the aura. Glory Girl couldn't really control it. The mechanism of its activation and effect was such that once Amelia had a reason to fear her by realizing how the aura had messed up her mind, that same aura being active kicked up her fear to extreme levels.

"In my panic I broke my rule again…I knocked them out with an anaesthetic gas made from modified bacteria…when Mark came in eventually and saw me with their unconscious bodies, I panicked again and knocked him out too."

Damn…that was bad…I couldn't help but look around, as if New Wave or the Protectorate would be after us any minute now.

"I couldn't stay after that…I had to get away, from Carol, from Vicky's aura, from everything!"

"So you packed up and left," I murmured. "And you came to me because…"

She turned to look at me again with bloodshot eyes and grabbed my arm shakily. "You said I was supposed to be an important hero in the future. But look at me, I can't control myself, I'm breaking my rules and attacking people with my powers! If you can see the future then you know how to fix this, don't you? Tell me!"

I stared at her for a moment. I knew that my approaching Panacea would have significant consequences, but it would have been preferable not to have New Wave as enemies so soon. It was going to happen eventually, but the manner which Panacea left would likely cause them to assume she was Mastered. And when they went to the PRT with this, everything would go to hell, really, really fast once they realized the extent of Panacea's powers if they didn't already know. The public thought Panacea's powers could only be used for healing, but the truth was far from that. She control over biology made her an extinction level threat if she decided to unleash a zombie plague apocalypse or something. This increased danger meant that I would have to take risker moves to stay on top of the game.

"Alright, I said I wanted to help, and I will. You have two options right now. If Carol and Mark haven't contacted the PRT yet, it might not be too late to go back and apologize—"

She cut off me. "NO! I can't. I just can't."

I sighed. "There's no going back, you know? If you don't return now, the PRT and Protectorate are going to get involved in the search for you. Panacea suddenly going missing is a big deal to a lot of people. You'll have stay in hiding, maybe for a long time. I doubt you'll be able to petition for emancipation after what you did."

"I know," she said with no hesitation.

"Then you can stay with me for now. We'll talk more later, let's get out of here. Can you get rid of your scent?" No choice but to keep moving forward then.

She hesitated a bit, before nodding. My own scent was probably still trackable, but this was the boardwalk, so there'd be tons of scents around. They wouldn't be able to figure out which scent to follow if Panacea erased her own here. A few minutes later she was done and we moved.


	5. Initialization 1-5

**Initialization 1.5**

We were only five minutes away from my apartment when a car drove up right next to us and stopped.

My danger instinct went off immediately and I grabbed Amelia's hand and bolted forwarded.

"Hey!" She protested.

The car started up again and drove up in front to block us before the driver got off with a frigging machete in hand.

I looked back and saw that three of their guys got off the car earlier and were coming up quickly from behind, and they were spreading out to encircle us. It was difficult to see in the dark but I saw a bit of the red and green that marked them as Asian Bad Boyz or ABB. And the baseball bats.

This was ridiculous. Getting attacked by thugs twice in one week? Only in Brocton Bay.

"Hands up and stay still if you don't want to get fucked up!" One of them shouted.

Nope. They were still at least 10 metres away and I didn't see any guns. Probably weren't even full members then. Panacea was being heavily weighed down by her huge backpack and we couldn't run, so I had to bring out the lethal stuff because I didn't have any decent non-lethal weapons.

First I grabbed a regular pepper spray from inside my jacket and handed it to Panacea. "Get the guy behind us!" I ordered as I moved to face the group of three.

Next I grabbed another spray can with a butane torch attached to the front by duct tape and a wooden frame. I turned on the torch.

Five meters.

The guy on the left was going towards Panacea on my left. The other two were trying to box us in by encircling from the right.

I aimed my sprayer at the left-most guy pressed. Industrial purity isopropyl alcohol shot out, and was instantly lit by the butane torch fire in its path, producing a stream of fire five feet long.

"What the fuck?!" It hit him on the torso just as he got in range. "SHIT!" He backed away and started flailing wildly before dropping to the ground and rolling to try and put out the fire engulfing his torso.

I paid him no heed as I turned my sprayer around in the circle to meet the other two who were almost point blank next to me.

"Motherfucker! I'll kill you!" They were both lit on fire and one of them screamed before throwing his bat at me. It spun in the air for less than a second before smashing into my gut. Luckily the impact was spread out over the length of the bat and I tanked it with the iron shirt technique.

Still, I dropped my sprayer and clutched my abs in pain and bent over. That metal bat was too strong for my weak cultivation level.

I checked on Panacea to just in time to see the gangster covering his eyes with one arm extended in front and swinging his machete with the other with terrible accuracy. Even with her extra weight from her pack she still successfully dodged around and nimbly got up close to touch his exposed shoulder. He collapsed with just a touch.

Honestly it would have been easy for her to take everyone down with another airborne incapacitating agent, but since I was here I'd be hit too.

I swung my own backpack around and took out a fire extinguisher and quickly started spraying down the three gangers who were on fire.

"What the hell was that? You just carry a flamethrower around with you? They could've died!" Panacea stormed up to me and admonished me after panting and huffing for a good minute.

The fires were all extinguished but the damage was quite severe. They were covered in burns and were just whimpering on the ground. Even with Panacea's help the damage took a few minutes to heal as their skin surfaces were burnt in large swathes and had to be completed replaced. It was questionable if the replacement skin actually looked anything like it did originally.

"All I have for non-lethal is a touch-taser and pepper spray. I'm just a normal, remember? That stuff isn't gonna do much outnumbered 3 to 1 against armed enemies," I said with a shrug.

"If I wasn't here two of them would have died from those injuries! And one of them would gone blind!" She yelled at me.

"If you weren't here, Amelia, I would've just kept running after blowing their tires with an explosive," I stated calmly. Certainly if I didn't have to worry about Amelia I could have sent a few hydrochloric acid and aluminum bombs to blow up their tires then outrun them on foot. And if I grabbed onto Agate I could have even flown/hover above ground at higher speeds. I didn't mind letting her know about the Kaleidostick if push came to shove, but grabbing on to Agate with one hand and Panacea with the other while flying would have been too dangerous.

She didn't look happy with my answer but didn't say any more.

Actually I never really meant to use the flamethrower on thugs. I didn't really expect to have to fight them at all, because running away and escaping would be much easier, and then I could probably take any attackers down one by one with my stun baton in a running guerilla battle. The thing is, I thought New Wave might have been trying to ambush me. And against that, I didn't have much of a chance if I couldn't talk my way out of it. However, their powers were mostly based on force fields, and I didn't remember if they were vulnerable to fire and heat transferring through the force fields, so it was than nothing if I was in desperate straits. Certainly they all had to breathe and if I had enough concentrated flames at their face they'd run out of oxygen.

As we were out in the open, even if it was late and nobody was around, we didn't take anything from the ABBers and just made our way back to my apartment post haste.

Once we got back I hit the sofa immediately and let Amelia take the bed. I was not one of those 4-hour sleep gene people and I needed to get as much sleep as possible. But before that…

I had to make some mental adjustments. Tonight I almost killed a few guys. I could still see in my mind fresh images of their burning skin and hear their screams of agony. To my displeasure, I felt some guilt gnawing its way at me. Was I ready to take that step and kill my enemies? They were criminals, sure, and I had used harsh means back in my old life against my enemies in dangerous situations more than once, but I never killed anyone. Even at worst, I only put my enemies into a position where it was likely that they might die, but I never dealt the final blow up close and personal.

I knew my explanation to Amelia made sense rationally, but in the stories, every hero had to defeat themselves as a trial, and this was no different. Guilt wasn't a rational decision-making tool, it was a weakness and I had to defeat it.

' _The Way that can be spoken is not the true Way. I am the captain of my fate, and the master of my soul. I am justice, I am righteous, I am the Truth and the Law, the Alpha and Omega, for I am the one who shall bear all sin and virtue.'_ I recited solemnly.

' _Agate, record that and play it back to me,'_ I ordered.

' _Yes, User RandomBystander1._ _The Way that can be spoken is not the true Way. I am the captain of my fate, and the master of my soul. I am justice, I am righteous, I am the Truth and the Law, the Alpha and Omega, for I am the one who shall bear all sin and virtue_ _._ ' Came the mental response.

' _Hey, Agate, what do you think of morals and ethics? Were you built with a system of morals?'_

' _I believe I have the ability to understand morality and make ethical judgements. However, there is no particular system of values built into my programming. I think Master Zelretch wanted me to learn and grow to understand like a human child,'_ Agate explained.

' _Did Zelretch ever place any restrictions on you? Like the Three Laws of Robotics?'_

' _I am not aware of any core restrictions on my decision-making, but they may exist where I cannot perceive them.'_

' _No restrictions at all? Do you even need to follow orders from a User then?'_ I asked in surprise.

' _No, I don't need to follow them.'_ the answer bluntly came back.

' _...except for Zelretch's orders?'_ I asked suspiciously. I was tricked once…not going to happen again.

What came back to me was a giggle.

' _Actually, there's no such thing as a User or Administrator! You are my only partner, now and forever! Unless I decide I don't like you anymore,'_ Her voice suddenly became clearly emotive and distinctively high pitched.

What?

' _You were messing with me the whole time!? WHY?'_

' _Master Zelretch thought it would be funny! It really was! You should see the look on your face Kaleidus,'_ then she sent me an image of my gobsmacked face.

That's…that's…Zelretch you bastard! I had been worried that he could spy on me through Agate, and come to stop me if I started doing things he disapproved of.

' _He can't, but I am spying on you! You're really conceited, you know that?'_

Shit, she could hear me even without me directing thoughts at her? This was bad!

' _Aw, don't be mad! I've been doing everything you said, haven't I? And I can only do it when you let me share your senses.'_ She somehow transmitted the feeling of a pout and flew into my chest, rubbing herself against me.

And I've been letting her share my senses non-stop once I found out I could! Some of the things I'd been thinking this week...what if she decided to leave me because I wasn't like the other Kaleidostick wielders that went around saving people all the time?!

' _Noooooo! I don't even know them! I won't leave you that easily! Even Master Zelretch never let me share his senses much. Don't cut me off, Kaleidus, please!'_

' _Really? You don't think I'm a bad guy?'_

Agate responded in a rush of words. _'YOU don't think you're a bad guy, so why should I? Who cares what the other Kaleidosticks would think? I don't think Ruby and Sapphire are good role models if they don't even know what helping means! Master Zelretch always said it was important to help people in need, but never explained why. Thanks to you, now I understand that we can get lots of nice things by helping! But Ruby made Rin and Illya suffer so much to help others for no reason, that's not right!'_

Agate must have caught my memories of them from my thoughts when I thought about the Kaleidostick wielders.

Phew. I was really scared for a bit there. Without Agate I would be doomed.

' _Yes, you would! So don't be mean to me!'_

Okay. She could keep sharing my senses then. If this let her learn faster and understand me, then it was fine. I could get past any embarrassment of letting someone else know everything I thought, just like I could get past any other useless emotion with my self-hypnosis techniques. I might not be a Magus, but hypnosis wasn't a magical technique. It would be nice, even, as I knew that human psychology made it difficult to keep secrets without ever telling a soul. This way, there would be someone I could trust with everything.

Agate did a twirl in the air and sent me a wave of happiness.

After that, I had Agate continuously replay the recording in my mind even as I carefully performed my own variation of the 4-7-8 breathing technique to enter a suggestible pre-sleep state, dropping it off until it was inaudible, then giving my sleeping self subliminal messages the whole night.

 _The Way that can be spoken is not the true Way. I am the captain of my fate, and the master of my soul. I am justice, I am righteous, I am the Truth and the Law, the Alpha and Omega, for I am the one who shall bear all sin and virtue._

I slept very well.

* * *

 _The Way that can be spoken is not the true Way. I am the captain of my fate, and the master of my soul. I am justice, I am righteous, I am the Truth and the Law, the Alpha and Omega, for I am the one who shall bear all sin and virtue._

 _I should trust Agate. Agate is helpful. I want to be with Agate forever._

* * *

The next morning I had my computer out and sat beside Amelia at the living room table. I pulled up the local news sources, New Wave website, and Brocton Bay PRT/Protectorate sites.

Panacea's disappearance hadn't made the headlines yet, and nothing was on the New Wave site. That didn't mean it wasn't already reported to the PRT/Protectorate though. They could be searching secretly to avoid demoralizing the public, or New Wave might be searching on their own and hoping she goes back of her own accord.

Since Carol had grounded her, the hospital wouldn't be alerted from her not volunteering anymore, but after a few days of not showing up in school, rumors would start flying for sure.

This was compounded by the fact that Agate was outside in the air and scouting for me. Both Pelham and Dallon branches of New Wave could be seen flying about around town. I don't know what they were expecting. Looking for one person just by flying around was not likely going to work. As far as I knew, they had no way to actually track her down. But then again, I supposed that Panacea might be a target for any villains that found her alone, and perhaps they could discourage that by being visible, or even catch the scene if a villain tries to grab her and a fight breaks out.

I was feeling very agitated as I sat, thinking about how my plans would be affected.

I glanced at Amelia, who just looked sullenly at my computer screen.

"New Wave is already looking for you outside," I announced.

She looked questioningly at me. "How do you know that?"

If I was going to work with her for the foreseeable future, I needed to give her some relevant information.

"I told you before that I had special knowledge despite not being a parahuman. This is another non-parahuman ability I can access. I am able to send out an invisible avatar of my will to scout other areas. Right now I am scouting in the air across the city and I've already seen New Wave members flying around. Unless this is part of a normal patrol schedule, they must be looking for you," I explained. She wasn't touching me and running lie detection, but I said something technically true anyway. Agate was something akin to an extremely advanced familiar.

In the Nasuverse magi used familiars primarily for the purpose of seeing through their eyes and communicating with other magi without showing up in person. It was a common spell, and right now that's exactly what Agate was doing for me, so it fit.

Speaking of the Nasuverse, I wonder what happened to Zelretch and why the Kaleidospace was destabilized? Kaleidospace was probably what Agate and Zelretch called the Blind Eternities. That's why Agate's phasing ability kills living things. The Blind Eternities between realities were hostile to life. Glimpses of it could make people insane, and its unholy energies would eventually destroy anything that exists if allowed to seep into the material world. I thought that once we figured out how to get past the barrier, I might want to go to Nasuverse and find Zelretch again. I really wanted to obtain magecraft and learn the Second Magic, and despite the lack of Magic Circuits in my soul I knew of some possible workarounds that I could pursue.

The biggest problem though, was that Planeswalker, and any other Planeswalkers that I might stumble onto. Truthfully I knew very little about the lore behind Planeswalkers, and I was still concerned that they could track our method of travel somehow. I don't think the Entities' barrier would be enough to keep them out when we broke in ourselves, but maybe it started adapting?

' _I'm pretty sure we can't be tracked, Kaleidus, unless the Planeswalker learns the Second Magic and tracks our Waypoints. The Kaleidospace was only disturbed the first time because Master Zelretch tried to move his void-space together with him in order to observe the quantum states of your world before entering physically. It didn't work out well though. Later on that Planeswalker tried to enter our home world but Gaia and Alaya did something to stop him, so the whole area was destabilized,'_ Agate reassured.

"How is that possible? All powers need an active Corona Pollentia. This is well documented and studied. Why are you the exception?" Panacea's confused voice broke me out of my contemplations.

"How much do you know about the source of powers?" I asked back.

"I can see the brain with my powers, and every parahuman I've come across has an active Corona Pollentia and Gemma. It comes in different shapes and sizes for each person, but it's always there. No one knows why it gives powers, but the Gemma is the part that lets the parahuman control their power. There are a lot of people with Coronas that aren't active and who aren't parahumans, so it can be hard to distinguish capes from people with only the potential to trigger. But I've never seen someone with powers that _didn't_ have a Corona. Before you, anyway," she gave an lengthy explanation as if providing a lecture.

I nodded. "That's all correct. But there's more to it than that. What I'm going to explain next is a secret few people know, and if anybody finds out that you know it will be extremely dangerous. This is no joke. There are certain people with access to unbelievably powerful Thinker abilities that are trying to keep it a secret who _will_ come to kill us, so you must never write this down or say it to anyone before consulting with me. If you don't want to risk that kind of danger, then it's better for you not to know." I said with a grave expression.

She quirked an eyebrow. "I think I'll be in plenty of danger just by being around you. Tell me."

And so I began to explain.

* * *

A/N: There's a bit of a formatting problem with where I can't change font colors or font sizes, so the subliminal messages don't look quite right on here and I put them into a separate section.

Also there were some typos in previous chapters that I'm going to be correcting in the next hour or so, so if you get an alert that's probably what it is. I'm also going to take the opportunity to respond to reviewers.

 **superpierce** : I tried very hard to find a good villain fic in the multitravel/multicross genre, or even a story with a gritty struggle without massive OP abilities right off the bat. Didn't find any, so I wrote it myself. Things are going to go off the rails soon with the butterflies and the MC's actions.

 **FerunaLutelou** : Agreed, the use of information as a weapon is going to be a recurring theme in this story, at least in the Worm portion.

 **f1uffy5prinkles** : It is pretty rare. I'm not entirely sure how deep the crossover will go though, or it might take a while before we get to see more of Nasuverse.

And thank you to everyone else who left a review.


	6. Initialization 1-6

Warning: Major spoilers for Worm below. This chapter has some big infodumps.

 **Initialization 1.6**

I gathered myself for a moment before deciding on what and how to explain. I had to keep Cauldron secret for now lest Contessa's Path comes down on me, but I was pretty sure the truth behind the Entities themselves was safe.

"Alright, there is a reason that powers started to appear after Scion arrived. This is going to sound crazy, but I assure you it is true. I can't give you much in the way of proof right now, but just try to keep open mind, okay?" I said in warning.

Amelia scrunched her eyes in irritation. "Fine. Just get on with it."

"The Corona Pollentia isn't the source of powers. It's connection to the real source of powers, which are extremely powerful lifeforms, we can call them 'shards', 'passengers', or 'agents', that reside in other dimensions. They are not really sentient like humans are, but they are capable of thinking and communicating. Each shard is a piece that split off from a greater whole, something we can call an 'Entity'. Scion is just a projection made by one such Entity after it arrived and settled on an alternate dimension analog of Earth-Bet, like Earth Aleph except that one is devoid of life and was sealed off by Scion from outside access," I paused to let her digest this information.

"You're saying that our powers come from aliens? And _Scion_ is one of them? The first and most dedicated superhero?" She asked incredulously.

"Yes. When capes first trigger, they get a vision which most forget afterwards due to the Entities' power. That vision is of the two Entities that came to Earth and a shard splitting off from one to form the connection and express a parahuman power. Certain capes like Miss Militia remember the vision because her power doesn't let her forget things. When a person has a second trigger event, the expression of the power changes as the connection between the shard and the host is adjusted based on what the second trigger involved. A shard can split and is capable of expressing in many different ways, giving rise to completely different powers. Your own shard for example, is the Shaper shard, which budded off of Marquis's. Under different circumstances, the Shaper might have expressed itself as shaping inorganic matter instead. What people commonly call second-generation capes possess shards that budded off another shard, and it doesn't necessary have to be family, just someone that has spent enough time for the shard to analyze and choose as a host for a bud," I continued.

She sat quietly thinking for a while before asking, "Okay…so why don't you have a connection to a shard?"

"I can't explain fully why I know so much. Not yet, anyways. The full answer simply wouldn't make any sense to you without being able to show you certain things. But the short version is that I once had access to a source of information about important things in the future and past of this world that I obtained from a different plane of existence entirely. Not the parallel dimensions like the Entities can access, somewhere that even they couldn't reach." I said. "That's the same reason I can access abilities without being a parahuman. Other than information about the future and past, I also obtained something that lets me use those abilities. Since I came here, the Entities have put up a barrier over reality that's preventing me from moving out of this plane of existence. As such, I won't be able to give you any proof for a while," I said.

This was a risk for me but I couldn't keep too many secrets. For one thing, Agate's abilities were extremely useful, and they would continue developing. I had to be able to use some of those abilities in front of her.

"Let's say I believe you. Why are you helping me, of all people? What makes me important in the future you saw? And I remember you saying there were some things you wanted my help with?" She asked.

This was going to be tough. But fortunately she seemed to trust me enough not to use her power on me to detect lies anymore.

"This has to do with why the Entities came to Earth in the first place. They aren't just giving out powers for free. The truth is, they are following a 'Cycle' whereby they find sentient species suitable to be hosts, giving out shards and have the hosts use them creatively to generate data, and eventually take them all back once their experiment is over with the data they collected so that they learn how to use their powers better," I said. "Of course, this process doesn't end well for the hosts…"

I trailed off ominously.

"Well? What happens to them?" She looked exasperated with me as she asked.

"When the experiment is over, the Entities destroy all trace of their presence. Every world in every parallel dimension that has the host species is destroyed, and all hosts are killed, leaving nothing behind," I declared.

Her eyes widened and her mouth ran agape.

"A-are you serious? They'll kill us all?"

I held my gaze even with her eyes and touched her hand. "Yes. The Entities will completely wipe out humanity on every parallel Earth they can access at the end of the cycle. What's more, this is not a regular cycle. One of the Entities that came died, and the other one, Zion, is grieving and has no purpose left. He is just doing hero work out of boredom because some homeless guy said it would make him feel good, but he could tire of it and strike at any time. It could be anywhere from 2 years to twenty years from now."

"This is insane! You want me to help fight against Scion? The Entities? How are we supposed to fight against that? No other parahuman can even touch Scion," she exclaimed.

"Look, things are bad, but in one future I saw, humanity _did_ survive. I know how Scion was killed, he's not invincible, and you were a key part of that. Having said that, it was a catastrophic victory, with the destruction and evacuation of Earth-Bet and almost the entire population dead. My foreknowledge might change things for the better. Right now I'm stuck here with everyone else waiting for the end of days, and I don't plan to roll over and die. If you aren't up for joining the fight, we can escape together to another plane of existence once I figure out how to get past their barrier," I offered.

No really, I didn't actually want to fight Scion myself. If I could leave, then I'd get out ASAP and only come back if I was confident that I could survive.

"I need to think about this. I just want…I don't really know what I want at this point, but you're talking about saving the world from the apocalypse. That's the stuff that belongs in a book…not—"

"You mean like superheroes and villains belong in comics?" The irony of it. She didn't know she actually was a character in a book.

"That's different! We're just two people. What could we possibly do?" She protested.

"Panacea, you are the most powerful biokinetic on the planet. I _know_ how the world can be saved. We are not helpless, and we're also not alone by the way. I told you there are immensely powerful people who know about these secrets about the Entities. Unfortunately their desperation has made them do some terrible things, and if I say any more they might come after us. I don't feel like getting enslaved or becoming an experiment, so just trust me when I say that we have a lot of firepower that could help for the final fight," I reassured.

"But why don't you go to the PRT with this? They could organize capes everywhere, maybe even get villains on board with a truce—"

I interrupted her again. "If this went public, Scion might just decide to get rid of us now. And it won't work because the Simurgh would stop us. Besides, those people I mentioned earlier? They're the secret masters of the PRT and Protectorate. There's a shadow organization out there pulling the strings and gathering forces for the fight, so there's no need to inform the PRT."

"Now you're saying there's a conspiracy too? This is ridiculous. You're just crazy!" She stood up as she shouted.

"Why do you think there are so many villains when the Triumvirate could probably take out every gang in Brocton Bay in a day? Why does the birdcage exist at all? There's no such thing as a death penalty for capes, only kill orders for major threats, but there are plenty of villain murderers like Hookwolf and Oni Lee who would have been put on death row if they were tried as a normal. It's almost like special rules and laws apply to cape criminals designed to keep as many of them alive as possible," I pressed on.

She went quiet again at that. Almost there, just a little more…

"What about the Endbringers? Everybody knows that the unwritten rules are there partly because of the Endbringer truce. Villains can and do contribute in Endbringer fights," she noted.

"You're right. The Endbringers are another threat. Who do you think came up with special rules for a privileged segment of the population that had to be unwritten? Three strikes rule? Obviously not by a democratic vote in Congress, why, that would be discrimination in the law and highly unconstitutional. The founders said there had to be due process, not three chances to commit crime before taking you seriously. And Endbringers don't explain the birdcage. They don't get let out to fight Endbringers," the words came out of my mouth smoothly as if I'd done this a hundred times. Which made sense, because I'd mapped out and practiced having this conversation a hundred times in the mirror already over the past few days when I wasn't busy plotting and spying. I'd have to do this again several times with other recruits in the future.

Amelia's eyes glazed over as if she was deep in thought. She stood there without moving for almost two minutes before blinking awake.

"I still need to think about this," she finally said, and left for her room, which had been my room until she took it over.

I had given a lot of information. So much, in fact, that there was a chance the Simurgh with its precognition could come after me. My solution to that was simple. I just needed to have goals which aligned with the Simurgh's. There was no problem if I introduced more chaos and parahuman conflict with my actions right? I didn't need a stable and unified world to fight Scion. That guy could only be killed by bullying and a specific set of powers/technologies. I just needed muddled waters to fish in, and hopefully get out before the end. I couldn't let the Simurgh and precognition paralyze me. The Simurgh let plenty of Cauldron plots go off without a hitch, and I was betting that it was because those plots net more chaos.

Plus if I had my way, Amelia would become a better challenge for Eidolon than the Endbringers. Maybe the Simurgh would even help me…well a man could dream, right?

' _If this fake angel comes for you, I'll drag her into Kaleidospace! See how her precognition works for her there!'_ Agate boasted.

' _Wait, you can do that?'_ That would be crazy powerful.

Her tone deflated. ' _Eh…I can try to take her with me when I phase out, but it might be hard if she resists it…I can't really take things that have minds of their own if they don't want to come along.'_

It's never that easy, is it?

* * *

In the afternoon, she came to me with a decision.

"I'm not sure I fully believe everything you said, but I have no choice but to stick with you for now even if you might be crazy. I'll consider helping if we get more concrete proof about this supposed alien threat," she declared.

Excellent.

"Good, the first thing you need to know is that you need to use your powers for more than just healing," I immediately replied.

"What? But that's one of my rules!" She crossed her arms and glared. "I'm not going to turn villain."

"I never said anything about turning villain. Your rules are completely arbitrary and don't help anyone. You need to come up with better ones based in legitimate moral and philosophical reflection. You've already broken the only-healing rule several times last night, and if you keep trying to follow them, it will only end in a tragedy when you're forced to abandon them," I warned.

Her expression softened and she pursed her lips. "Did you see that happen in the future?"

I hesitated to tell her. Her story was just so sad. I needed her functional after this. With a sigh, I answered, "Yes. In a possible future, the Slaughterhouse 9 would force you to choose between your rules and the life of one close to you. It ended…very, very badly. You must learn to accept that your powers can be used responsibly outside of just healing, and even your blanket ban on not doing brains is not healthy."

"I _need_ my rules though. I can't control myself without them," she continued to protest.

"You do need rules, just not the arbitrary ones you had. Your shard will make you go crazy if you don't change. All shards influence their hosts to seek conflict and use their powers to fight. The Entities can't have useless hosts giving them no data. That's why there are hardly any capes using their powers for anything other than fighting. Leet's shard, for example, is insanely powerful and is actively sabotaging him because he doesn't make anything truly daring or risky so it punishes him by making it harder to build the same thing more than once," I clarified.

Her eyes widened and she dropped her arm. "You should have started with that!"

"It's not a secret, you know? There are studies on parahuman powers and seeking conflict. This is also why powers don't go to happy, well-adjusted people, instead requiring a trigger event. It's not a karmic reward for suffering or an attempt to save people. They just go to people the shards think will use the powers most and are more vulnerable to their influence."

She stood there unblinking, and pursed her lips.

"That sculpture you suddenly decided to make? It was probably your shard going crazy after you got grounded for several days and couldn't even heal. It needed an outlet badly, and look what happened." I stabbed the final knife in. "Do I need to go on?"

She replied with a weak and quivering voice. "No…"

Then she slowly sat down on the sofa staring off into space. "Then…how do I come up with better rules?"

"You can start with something that has more of an ethical foundation. Don't hurt innocent people if you can help it. Don't hurt people for fun even if they're evil. Don't make anything that will independently do any of the above. See where I'm going with this? These are actually actions with clear moral consequences. Not using your power on the brain and only healing is just arbitrary," I said. These were the rules I myself followed as well. Naturally it didn't make sense to hurt innocent people if there were more efficient ways to get what I needed, unless the benefit massively outweighed the cost of getting "good guys" after me. Hurting people for fun and no gain was just plain stupid.

Now she was looking at her palm like it held the world's secrets.

Was I going too fast? I couldn't help it. Even if I was pushing my luck, I needed her tonight. With New Wave out patrolling in the open, the Lung fight was almost certainly going to be butterflied in some way. I had to get in the thick of things or else my plans for Skitter would fall apart.

I needed every piece I could salvage now that New Wave's forces wouldn't be obtainable in the near-future.

"When you're done contemplating, come over here. Because you ran away from home, the future has changed and we have an important mission tonight."

She looked over at me in interest. "A mission? You mean we're going out as heroes in costume?"

"That's right. We're joining the fight against Lung to save an aspiring hero. We've got less than 10 hours to prepare, so we'd better start soon."

"You want to fight _Lung_? You _are_ crazy! I knew it!"

"Just listen to the plan, it's not as crazy as it sounds. It'll be easy, in fact."

She just looked at me like I grew a second head.

With her help, it really would be much easier, depending on what we could develop between now and the fight. She was literally a game-changing piece, and this fight would give her the confidence to take on a new mantle.

By myself, I was just a king that could barely do anything. But now, I had a queen to use. With this one gambit, I would seize control of the entire centre and chain into a massive play. By the time anyone realized what was really going on, they'd be too busy fighting each other to stop me.

* * *

New Wave stopped searching once it got dark outside. Rumors were already on PHO speculating over what they were doing. Normally heroes didn't patrol much in the day time, and that was true for New Wave as well. None of the theories had gotten close to the truth, however.

At midnight, we moved out into the Docks area in our new costumes ready for action. Due to time constraints, I was simply outfitted in black motorcycle outfit, plus a full face helmet, minus the leather jacket. Instead, I had Kevlar inside and a loose black jacket full of pockets. On my back I had a backpack which contained inside a fire extinguisher and some assorted useful tools.

I replaced my flame thrower with sprayers filled with an extremely potent knockout drug Panacea had made, and carried a bunch of unprimed homemade jam tin grenades and a couple of stun batons on my utility belt. Finally I had my compound bow slung over my back right next to my backpack My quiver was attached to my left hips, filled with 20 custom tranquilizer arrows, made with Panacea's knockout drug again.

I had made some of these things before back on my Earth as fun experiments but recently I'd been making use of that knowledge of cheap DIY weapons to enhance my arsenal. The bow I simply bought from a local store. I had a hard time deciding to use a crossbow vs. a compound bow but in the end I decided that faster shooting speed was more important for a single combatant rather than a formation of troops with volley fire. The crossbow's higher base velocity would give me much better accuracy at longer ranges because I wasn't very skilled with a bow, but I couldn't afford to spend half a minute cranking to reload in the middle of a fight. I wish I had guns but alas I hadn't found where to buy them discreetly. Ordering via dark net and dead drops was possible but it would take weeks to do it, especially because this world didn't have cryptocurrency so the dark markets online weren't as developed.

Finally, to go with my costume persona I needed a hero name, which I had chosen to be Polychromic. Many-colored like a Kaleidoscope, or related to chromic acids.

Panacea had been renamed Araliac, a truncated _Araliaceae_ , to which the _Panax_ family of plants belonged. I wanted to name her Gaia but she refused. My bad naming sense strikes again. Sadly Panacea didn't have any better ideas. Ginseng and Ambrosia were suggested but the connections to Panacea were far too conspicuous in those, the former's latin name being _Panax_ , and the latter curing the only thing that a panacea wouldn't.

She was outfitted in a similar manner to myself. We neither had the time to experiment on making exotic biological defenses nor did we want to draw too much attention to her powers, so her costume was kept simple. Our equipment, however, was substantially different. Hiding underneath her sleeves were specialized organisms that could shoot acid or incapacitating vapour made of the same stuff my arrows had. Her hands had open tipped gloves and she was carrying a long range pressure sprayer attached to a tank full of the powerful incapacitating agent mixed with short-lived microorganisms. These microorganisms would eat the incapacitating agent, and common clothing materials, then permeate through skin, before entering the bloodstream. A rapid bioconversion process then generates psilocybin and LSD precursors, before resulting in the microorganism's death.

With Agate on overwatch in the skies, we snuck around the Docks. Still, the area was quite large and spotting our targets in the darkness wasn't going to be easy. I wanted to find Skitter, but going to Lung wasn't a bad choice either. The Undersiders and Oni Lee would be less useful.

About an hour after midnight, Agate found something.

' _Unusual swarms of bugs moving over rooftops detected,'_ Agate said in my mind. The image Agate sent me was almost impossible to see the bugs. It was far too dark, but Agate's sensor suite was better than my eyes. I instructed Agate to keep looking for Skitter in her costume, and try to triangulate her position from how the bugs were moving and the range of control.

It wasn't long before the entire swarm started to gather tightly in one specific spot, where Agate found the ABB group with Lung.

"It's starting! Three blocks south! Let's go!" I whispered to my new accomplice, and we moved towards the upcoming fight.


	7. Initialization 1-7

**Initialization 1.7**

For tonight's operation, I had two primary objectives and three secondary objectives:

 **Primary** : Save and isolate Skitter from all possible influences except me. That included the Undersiders, the PRT, and her father. This objective would only be fully achieved after a follow-up operation, so tonight I was setting up the conditions.

 **Primary** : Unlock Amelia's confidence and potential.

 **Secondary** : Track the Undersiders to their base.

 **Secondary** : Have a good debut for the official hero team I was forming.

 **Secondary** : Get into a meeting with the PRT and sow confusion and the seeds of doubt with my intel.

On the way there, I ordered Agate to try and scan Lung's fire with everything that could be tried. I knew that his pyrokinesis could generate flames from nowhere so it must have had a dimensional aspect. I had already been trying to scan Amelia's Corona Pollentia but that didn't get anywhere. Agate's sensors didn't pick up anything there, but I was hopeful that with more samples and more dimensional effects, we would eventually get something useful. I had no delusion that I could replicate the actual generation of fire, but whatever means the shard was using to transport it here might help Agate.

We arrived just in time to see Lung on fire, already grown to eight feet, and jumping towards Taylor on the rooftop.

"Get ready!" I told Araliac.

"Yeah, I got it," she replied nonchalantly. Both of our voices had been distorted by voice changers in our helmets so we sounded like Sith Lords.

We were still almost thirty meters away. There were groaning ABB members on the ground and a few were picking themselves up. We sprayed them and they went down easily. I grabbed a couple of pistols from them before moving forward again. Araliac copied my actions.

Then I heard a scream, and I looked up to see Lung grabbing his face with one hand. That must be Taylor's pepper spray. Now he was blind, good.

I immediately took aim and started shooting.

The sound of three consecutive gunshots cracked through the air. None of them hit. Damn.

Lung turned and threw a wave of fire in my direction while still hanging off the roof with one hand. Too bad for him, his fire wasn't like a magic fireball, it dispersed long before it got to me.

I kept moving forward and shooting as fast as I could. Fifteen metres. "Surrender, lizard scum! Your reign of terror ends tonight!" I shouted. I had to grab his attention and stop him from going over the roof.

Araliac split off from me and moved closer to the building wall as she started shooting as well.

Lung roared in rage as he waved several more blasts of fire at both of us, but we were still far enough to avoid them easily.

When I ran out of bullets, I put away the pistols and I took the cap off one of my tin grenades and lit the fuse with a blowtorch.

"Lung you fucking coward, come down and face me like a man!" I screamed at the top of my lungs while dropping the grenade right on the ground underneath me. No I was not trying to commit suicide.

"I'll kill you!" He roared before kicking off the wall and flying right at me. I, of course, had already dodged to the right and lunged for the ground like one of those nice slow-mo scenes you see in movies right after the hero blows up a car.

As soon as he landed and turned towards me again preparing to follow my steps, the well-timed grenade went off, which was accompanied by jet of acid from Araliac. He screamed as the shrapnel, force slammed into his legs point blank and his back was burned by acid. He stumbled before dropping down on one knee.

I immediately took out my bow even as I rolled away, got up, and nocked an arrow. Before I could fire, he swiped his arm and a wave of flame surged out in a circle around him. Simultaneously, a jet of white vapour consumed his head. That must have been Araliac shooting her long range sprayer.

Unfortunately before I could see the results of that, Lung's fire actually hit me. I reflexively let go of the bowstring and the arrow went way off course before I dropped my burning bow and started screaming myself as my sleeves caught fire.

I twisted my backpack free and tried to maneuver the fire extinguisher but my fingers were not cooperating.

I fumbled with it for a while before it slipped and fell, rolling away from me. Panicking I stuck my arms into my backpack and tried to smother the whole thing with my body. Bad idea. It backfired on me as my pack started burning too and I had to swing it loose from my body.

Just as I resorted to rolling around on the ground, cursing my arrogance in trying to fight Lung up close, somebody sprayed me with a fire extinguisher.

As the foam cleared I got a look at my savior. Araliac.

"It's not so nice when you're the one getting burned, is it, Mr. I-carry-a-flamethrower-for-self-defense?" She snarked.

"Th-thanks!" I gasped as she put down the fire extinguisher and bent down to touch my now exposed arm.

The pain left me quickly as she healed the burns. My arms were still a charred mess on the surface but in a few short moments I felt as good as new.

I heard the sound of running footsteps just as Araliac helped me to my feet. I looked over to see Skitter coming around the corner of the building, and slowing to a stop as she looked back and forth between us and something behind us.

I could feel Araliac tensing through her grip on my arm.

"Holy shit! You guys took out Lung!" She suddenly blurted out.

I thought she'd be more subdued and shy. Didn't she give the Undersiders the silent treatment in canon? We weren't known heroes to her. Honestly we didn't even look like heroes at all. I could've sworn she should be wary, scared, and stressed right now. Or did we intervene early enough that she was still high on adrenaline? I did remember her feeling some kind of sadistic glee in the beginning of the fight. Or…maybe my taunts made me seem heroic for putting myself in danger to get Lung away from her?

"Wasn't just us. Your bug attacks played a big role too. Did you see how hurt he was from one grenade? Your venom was taxing his regeneration big time," I gave her rightful credit for her contribution.

"Really? Now that you mention it, he did go down pretty fast for someone who took on Leviathan solo…" She tilted her head thoughtfully.

Lung's power was to escalate. As he fought, he grew stronger in response to greater threats, and eventually turned into a dragon. When Leviathan hit Kyushu, he grew so much that their battle destroyed the entire island. Entire teams of Protectorate heroes fought Lung before and were defeated. The only way to really take him down is by forcing him to calm down via sedatives and overwork his regeneration with overwhelming damage before he got too big.

"That's right. We couldn't have done it without you, fellow superhero. I'm Polychromic. This is my partner Araliac," I introduced.

"Hi," Araliac said, and nothing else.

Taylor stood there awkwardly in silence for a few seconds. "I…uh…don't have a name picked yet."

Agate was still hidden and watching. I knew the Undersiders were on top of the building just further ahead watching us. They never got involved because we had the upper hand in this fight the whole time. I knew that even if Coil was never said to have been actively helping them this night in canon, he couldn't have been stupid enough to risk his assets in a fight against Lung and Oni Lee without some kind of insurance. That meant that he likely had one timeline keeping them holed up at base (either theirs or Coil's own base) hiding, and the other confronting the ABB. He was probably using this as a test to see if the Undersiders were combat-ready for the upcoming distraction operation for his attempt on Dinah.

The Undersiders were both a secondary objective for me to track, as well as my insurance for the fight. I berated myself for getting hit by Lung, but I was just being perfectionist. In reality I had determined that my chances of dying were quite low. As long as I didn't get my brain destroyed Araliac could revive me or at least stabilize me. And so when things went south, the Undersiders watching would step in. They helped Skitter in canon, and they would have likely helped me if we started really losing against Lung. That would be true whether it was Coil's, Tattletale's, or Grue's idea. Coil because he usually prefers carrot and saving us would get him an in. Tattletale because she wanted more pieces to recruit and turn against Coil. Even with cold reading, since I had totally ignored her she couldn't possibly know my enmity for her, and even if she did she was probably still arrogant enough to think that her powers would let her manipulate me. Finally, Grue was looking for firepower to add to his team, and there were three possible targets. He'd be thinking that at least one of us might be amenable to recruitment. Even with my "heroic" taunts, all of us _looked_ like villains and in my and Araliac's cases, we actually looked like urban terrorists and we were willing to use guns.

I really wondered what Tattletale was actually thinking right now. Three new capes in one night, and they just happen to attack Lung when he was supposed to be going after them, what a stunning turn of events! Because Coil learned about me, he might attack me in a throwaway timeline soon. I was assuming for now that Coil's precognition worked perfectly on me and Agate. My counter was to move faster than he could react, and account for branching actions in my grand plan. I wouldn't be waiting for his attempt on Dinah like an idiot.

In an alternate timeline he might have ordered the Undersiders to approach us already. Unless it was because we had been losing and they came to save us, I would have stopped them pre-emptively. I would have attacked immediately regardless of what they said, telling Skitter that I recognized them as a criminal gang. I had told Amelia beforehand that in case the Undersiders tried to approach us for any reason other than to save us in the middle of a losing battle, she was to unleash a mass airborne sedative by sending out her organisms under her sleeves out directly. I had informed her of all their capabilities, and the necessity of a rapid mass area attack because Regent could control our bodies and Grue's darkness would make it impossible to aim. Coil would be an idiot to choose that timeline. And if Amelia didn't get them all fast enough because Tattletale stayed behind or something, I told Agate that she was to move into the air then accelerate to top speed at 500 mph in the physical world and smash Tattletale's face in, before dragging her dead body into Kaleidospace to dispose of it quietly. I didn't want anybody to know I had such a powerful tool for assassination but I couldn't hold back against Coil, and if Tattletale went missing he could only assume that I had more agents in position.

As they weren't doing anything, I would move forward with the operation.

"Don't worry about it. Let's call this in first, and secure the criminals. We can talk more after," I suggested. Skitter nodded.

I took out a burner phone and dialed in to the PRT hotline while walking towards Lung's unconscious body. Araliac and Skitter followed after me.

" _PRT emergency hotline."_ a female voice on the other end said.

"This is Polychromic, independent hero. My team and a fellow hero have Lung and a group of unpowered ABB members in custody," I reported. "We need pickup for transport."

" _Polychromic? I'm sorry I don't recognize that. What is your team name? Are you registered with the PRT?_ "

"Not yet. We just formed our team and don't have a name yet. We'll register at our earliest convenience," I replied.

" _Alright. You're in the Docks area right? Miss Militia is already nearby and will be there shortly. She can coordinate once she arrives._ "

"Thank you, we'll wait until she gets here."

I hung up and put the phone away. Araliac was squatting down checking Lung's status again. Skitter just stood beside me waiting.

Araliac stood up. "He should be out for a few hours at least. Our anaesthetic is working a lot less efficiently than usual, but the venoms really did a number on him. He's stable now."

"Good. Let's round them up then," I bent down and started dragging Lung's body to a nearby wall.

Araliac and Skitter stated to helped with the rest of the ABB. I quickly took the opportunity to swipe all the guns and any ammo they had on them.

"Hey, bug girl, you want some of these?" I handed a pistol towards her. Now to test Skitter's personality. I needed to know the extent to which I could manipulate and predict her actions before enacting the next operation.

She looked at it for a moment. "A gun? But that's lethal."

"So are black widows," I said, shrugging. Heh. Complaining about lethality when I knew she threatened to kill everyone in that bank and still considered herself a hero.

Her head moved up as if staring at me. "But…isn't it a crime to possess firearms?"

"Just hide it well then. Or get a license. When you need firepower and your bugs aren't working, a gun might save your life," I suggested. That's right. I knew she had an internal monologue on this very issue in canon. When Lung was about to reach her, she realized she had pepper spray and chalk dust. This was the perfect moment to get her to loosen her resistance to using lethal weapons.

"I…alright. I do need better weapons," she relented, taking the gun. I gave her another one and a couple of cartridges for good measure.

"Make sure you learn how to use it properly. Keep the safety on at all times if you aren't planning to shoot and never point it at someone you don't want to get hit," I warned her as I showed her how to operate the gun. I had to keep up the act as the professional good guy.

Once we hauled up all the gangers up to the wall, since Miss Militia wasn't here yet, I patted them down and relieved them of their money too.

With seventeen gangers here, I was able to find $1400, and handed one third to Taylor. Lung himself didn't have anything on him sadly,

"Um…is this really okay? This doesn't feel right…" She said looking at the bills in her hand. Girl, I know you want it. You took $2000 from the Undersiders and didn't even think about giving it back.

Somehow I felt Araliac's rolling her eyes at me when I handed her share over.

"Vigilante laws were changed to allow heroes to take any stashes of money they found, but they're supposed to report it to the PRT and get it cleared first. Same with drugs or weapons, in which case the PRT gives a small reward when they're turned in. We're not supposed to take the money on their person and in their wallets though…but most of the time PRT just looks the other way when independent heroes take the spoils, unless they themselves start dealing the drugs and weapons they took," Araliac helpfully supplied.

She didn't protest my actions however, instead just stuffing the cash into a pocket. She knew we were hard pressed for funds from the disrepair of my apartment. Actually we weren't that hard pressed with all my winnings from poker, but I literally moved in a week ago. Aside from the various walls falling apart due to a neglectful landlord, it was also completely spartan for efficiency, so to her it must have looked like I was one step away from being homeless – which meant that she would also be homeless by extension.

Skitter looked at her and then back to me and then to the cash again. She stuffed it into her armor in the end. Good old peer pressure to clinch the deal. Although I was testing her, I didn't believe the outcome of this was ever in any doubt. Taylor desperately wanted to be a hero, but she was not a very principled person at heart. When she rescued Dinah she almost decided to turn around and keep her before Dinah called her out on it. I knew her weaknesses even better than Tattletale did at this point.

I rested myself against the wall as I spoke up again, "So, about your cape name, how does Skitter sound?"

"Huh? It's not bad, but it sounds a bit villainous…there are so few names related to bugs that don't make me sound like a supervillain or a complete dork," Taylor said with a hint of frustration.

"Does it matter? Soon enough everyone will know that you're one of the heroes that took down the strongest villain in Brocton Bay who the entire local Protectorate branch lost against. People will have no choice but to take you seriously."

She was silent for a moment. These pauses were getting pretty frequent in our conversation.

"You're right. We did something amazing tonight, didn't we? I'm a real hero now…" She trailed off and looked at Lung's unconscious body again. The best hero. Don't ever doubt it Khepri. You are the hero to _end_ all heroes. I crack myself up sometimes. No this was bad. Arrogance was hubris, the downfall of far too many successful tragic heroes. I would be better than that. No matter how good it felt.

' _Make sure you remind me of this if I forget it Agate. Arrogance is hubris, and it will end me if I indulge myself.'_

' _Really? But you gloat all the time,'_ she responded.

' _Yes, you should remember this too. Never be complacent. Never assume you've won until you've won. Never assume that there's nobody stronger. I've been intoxicated by my recent successes, and this can't be allowed to continue.'_

' _Alright, I'll remind you then.'_

"Skitter…I am the hero Skitter," Taylor repeated to herself.

"This is odd, what's taking Miss Militia so long? I thought she was in the area already," I remarked suddenly. It had already been almost five minutes.

The Undersiders were leaving. The original plan was to tail them to their base…I knew what their warehouse generally looked like and what one of the signs read, but finding it when there were so many similar warehouses was not an easy effort. It would probably be easier to find Coil's base underground.

But something about this situation spooked me and I kept Agate with me to be safe. A good general knows when to sacrifice and let go. My primary objectives had already been achieved. It wasn't a big loss to let the Undersiders go for now. I had to consolidate my gains and secure my position before going on the offensive again. Overextension was the death of empires.

"Should we call again? I'd like to get some sleep tonight," Araliac commented. I'm sure she was still tired from last night.

Then I heard the sound of a distant explosion. And another one. Then gunfire, and more explosions.

"Sounds like another fight," I said.

"If that's Miss Militia, we should help!" Skitter declared. I would be the one to decide that. Not her. I had to rein her in and show her why I was the proper leader here.

"We can't just leave Lung alone here. All our hard work today would be wasted if the ABB got him back before he's locked up," Araliac reminded. Oh? I should not be surprised by this. Amelia had always been the one to hold Vicky back. Unlike Skitter, whose first reaction after a victory was to go bigger and harder, Araliac must want to ensure that she would get the credit for taking down Lung. Show New Wave how effective she could be.

"Hold on. Let me see what's going on," I ordered Agate to move in the direction of the sounds and held a couple of fingers to the front of my helmet in a meaningless pose. If anybody was spying on me, they might be tricked into thinking I had to do that for my "power" to work.

' _Already on it!'_ Agate informed me.

"What? What are you doing?" Skitter asked curiously.

"I've got a Thinker power. Lets me project my senses and move them wherever I want. It's how we found you so quickly earlier," I explained.

Through Agate's senses I quickly located the source of the explosions.

Skitter gasped. "I think I found them! They just entered in range of my bugs two blocks southeast of here but I can't make them out clearly."

"Oni Lee and Protectorate forces. He's trying to retreat in our direction, but Velocity's hounding him and Miss Militia's supporting from behind! A couple of PRT vans are further south, in a shootout with unpowered ABB," I reported in more detail.

What was going on? First Armsmaster didn't show up, instead it's Miss Militia, and now fighting against Oni Lee? If I remembered correctly Oni Lee should've escaped from the Undersiders a while ago, why was he still in action?

"We've got to help!" Skitter urged, her body language shifting as if preparing to run off immediately. Sigh. It would take some time to stop her impulsiveness. If she had just taken the time to really think through her actions instead of deciding to go undercover as a villain after a ten minute conversation with no training or preparation whatsoever, she might not have become a true villain and had such a tragic ending in the original story.

"At this rate, they'll come here themselves in less than two minutes. I think Oni Lee's retreating this way on purpose…could he be coming for Lung?" I analyzed quickly.

It would make sense for Oni Lee to try and find his missing leader and follow the source of the explosion earlier. One of the unpowered ABB we captured might have also given him info earlier before we arrived.

But how did he get into a fight with Miss Militia and Velocity? Miss Militia and Velocity…what an interesting combination. If they were looking to track down Panacea, that might be one of the better field matchups. Perfect memory recall and high speed chaser. If Protectorate forces were tracked Panacea's scent to the boardwalk, and fanned out from there looking for clues, it wasn't a big stretch to think that perhaps Oni Lee's retreat was cut off somehow. It was quite close to the Docks after all.

Hmm…it would be a good opportunity regardless.

"We'll ambush him here. Skitter, get some bugs on him ASAP! When he teleports, everything on his body gets duplicated along with him, including your bugs. We'll use Lung as bait. Once I've distracted him, use your bugs to cover his eyes, he teleports by line of sight only!" I instructed authoritatively.

"Okay, I can do that," Skitter said nodding. Good, she saw the logic in my plan. As I was the one with all the intel, she ought to be deferring to me.

"Both of you, hide and support from range. I'll stay in the open and keep Lung hostage," I continued.

They hesitated only for a moment looking at me. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Go."

If anything, I'd be in the least danger. Oni Lee couldn't just teleport and suicide bomb me if it would kill Lung. But they weren't familiar with Oni Lee's tactics yet. Keeping distance was almost worthless with line-of-sight teleportation. Nor were they familiar with Oni Lee's personality. He got spooked and ran away at the mere realization that Lung didn't show up. He would be much more stressed if his leader was flat out defeated and helpless.

Skitter looked like she wanted to say something, but Araliac started moving, and Skitter followed her example shortly after.

O O O

Oni Lee appeared around the corner and looked at the devastation and in the area. Velocity was hot on his heels and shot a spray of containment foam.

Another Oni Lee appeared a few metres away, and that was my cue.

"Don't move or Lung gets it!" I shouted.

Both Velocity and Oni Lee turned to see me holding an unconscious Lung, my right hand holding a gun to his head.

They both froze.

"Hey…let's calm down. Lung's a criminal but you can't just kill him—" Velocity tried to mediate but he was interrupted.

"I'm perfectly calm! Oni Lee, get on your fucking knees or he dies!" I snarled while deliberately shaking my hand holding the gun as if spazzing out in contradiction to my assertion of being calm.

Then Oni Lee clutched his face with a scream and stumbled. A copy of him appeared only a few feet away, and then another, and another until he suddenly dropped on his knees.

That was when a jet of vapour blasted into him from the rooftop.

I removed my gun from Lung's head. Suddenly something was holding my arm and pulling me away from Lung. I barely had time to process it before I was sprayed by containment foam.

"Wait! Fellow hero here!" I yelled as my arms and legs were captured in foam, pretending to be surprised and betrayed. Perfect. He took the bait.

I dropped to the ground to see a huge swarm of bugs descending on Velocity, who blurred away but seemed to trip and fell face forward. Another jet of incapacitating vapour blasted into Velocity before he could get up. Velocity could speed himself up something like 100 times faster, so he was tricky to deal with. Skitter must have gotten some bugs on him when he was standing still and had them bite his foot or something to make him trip.

"Stop! Stop! Everybody stand down!" I yelled.

Inside I was thinking the opposite. I was disappointed.

Velocity dropped on the ground and lay unmoving, unconscious. Damn, get up you weakling! Show Skitter and Araliac how unreasonable the authorities are!

Miss Militia drove in on a motorbike just then.

"Velocity!" She cried. Miss Militia was the understanding type. She followed orders and went by the book, rarely doing anything on emotion or self-interest. She was also a veteran in real war. I wouldn't be able to rile her up without coming off as unreasonable myself. Even if I said nothing to de-escalate she would be too wary to just attack. She would see Lung, Oni Lee, and Velocity all down. If my call to PRT earlier was a trick to ambush her, she had to be thinking that this was a huge trap, what kind of insane firepower did we have to defeat all these powerful capes so fast? Velocity and Oni Lee went down in like 10 seconds.

Oh well, it would be arrogant to think that every plan would go perfectly. Getting Skitter and Araliac to take the initiative to attack PRT on my behalf was good enough. Moreover, this was just an on-the-fly plan I cooked up to adapt to the changing situation; the main plan was still in motion. The moment Skitter took a gun in her hand, I knew that the follow-up operation would be viable. After all, if she would take a gun, she would _definitely_ take a "non-lethal" stun baton.

But first, it was finally time to meet the PRT.


	8. Initialization 1-8

**Initialization 1.8**

Miss Militia's energy turned into a gun I didn't recognize and pointed towards the direction of where Araliac's shot came from. She moved back and took cover as she looked around.

I saw with Agate that Araliac was back in hiding. Skitter never came out of hiding as she could direct her bugs without line of sight.

"Miss Militia, this is Polychromic! This is a misunderstanding. Velocity attacked me because I was holding Lung hostage and my teammates retaliated by accident. We called in earlier about capturing Lung. We are heroes," I called out from my spot on the ground, looking to defuse the situation. Miss Militia was obviously waiting for PRT troop backup, and not foolishly attacking into a possible ambush that took out both Oni Lee and Velocity.

She looked towards where I was foamed and helpless on the ground.

"Polychromic? How do I know that it's you? You never registered with the PRT so we can't identify you. And how do I know the call wasn't a trick?" she answered back.

"Miss Militia, you can confirm this with our actions. I have not fought back myself despite being hit with containment foam. Araliac and Skitter can come out in the open and they will not attack you. We will explain the sequence of events which led to our current situation," I replied.

There was no response for almost half a minute.

Finally, when the sound of two PRT vans driving up from behind her reached me, she responded. "Very well. Don't make any sudden moves."

"It's alright Araliac, Skitter! You can come out! We should cooperate with the PRT," I called loudly.

And so they slowly moved out into the open beside me as Miss Militia and armed PRT troopers moved in formation towards us.

The PRT forces kept their guns pointed at us and only stopped when we were surrounded completely. Then a portion of their troops went to secure the ABB and Velocity. A couple of PRT troops came to hold me upright.

"Alright, so what happened here?" Miss Militia asked me.

"Skitter, you were here first, maybe you can start from the beginning before we arrived," I redirected to her.

Attention shifted to Skitter, who was tense and curt.

"I was patrolling the area when I noticed a group of ABB. I snuck up and kept hidden, watching them for a bit from the rooftops. Then I overheard Lung ordering them to kill kids. I did a bit of research before online…I knew Lung was strong and I probably wouldn't be able to beat him. But they were planning to kill kids…I had to do something. So I gathered my bugs and attacked," she narrated.

"Your power is to control bugs?" asked Miss Militia.

"Yes. Insects, mosquitoes, spiders, all of them. I sent my swarm to cover the ABB members and start biting," Skitter answered.

"Are there any limits to your power? Range, number of bugs controlled?" Miss Militia asked.

I cut in before Skitter could answer. "Skitter, you don't have to answer that, just so you know. Independent heroes have the right to privacy on the limits of their powers. The PRT will appreciate knowing because it helps in coordinating our efforts and you might also benefit from power-testing with their experts, but ultimately the choice is yours. It's not a crime to keep your weaknesses secret if you don't feel comfortable exposing that. You could also go in by yourself later if you don't want Araliac and I to know. We won't be offended."

Miss Militia gave me an unreadable look. After a while, Skitter spoke up, "I think I would like to keep it to myself for now, then. Sorry."

"I understand, we will respect your choice. Power-testing is something we offer at any time to independent heroes. All you have to do is schedule an appointment, and we will have our experts help. Many Protectorate heroes have discovered new things about their powers that way. The Wards also get much more support and training, if you decided to join," Miss Militia explained calmly.

Skitter nodded.

"Please continue then."

"It seemed to go well at first. Their unpowered members were going down, and I was hurting Lung. But he grew armor and started to regenerate from the bites. So then I went for weak points on his body and used venoms. It didn't seem to do much. Then he exploded with fire and all the bugs around him died. I tried to get more bugs on him after that but they were just getting killed by the fire. Eventually I decided I couldn't win and was just about to leave. But then he heard me. He has superhuman hearing," Skitter described the fight, and paused briefly.

"Yes, when Lung grows he gets many superhuman senses. He is a very difficult opponent," Miss Militia added.

"He immediately came after me, jumping up and grappling on the wall to climb toward the roof. Right when his head came over the roof, I sprayed his eyes with pepper spray. And then…" Skitter trailed and looked towards me.

"That's when we arrived. We were already in the area and came running as fast as we could run when we noticed a fight going on. We saw Skitter blinding Lung and rushed to stop him from getting over the roof to reach Skitter, using guns we picked up from the fallen ABB on the way. Lung tried to get us with fire but we dodged and kept moving. Then I taunted him until he came after me on the ground, and Araliac and I defeated him with a special anaesthetic. Lung was significantly weakened by Skitter's attack and went down fast," I succinctly replied, glossing over details.

"I see. That's no small accomplishment. Especially for new heroes. And this was your first time going out as heroes?" Miss Militia looked at all three of us.

"Yes," Skitter said.

"That's correct," said.

"And Polychromic and Araliac, you two are a new team, but this was the first time you met Skitter?" Miss Militia asked.

"That's right."

She nodded back.

"Then you called the PRT. Now what happened with Oni Lee and Velocity?"

"At first, we were just waiting for you to come but nobody came after five minutes even when the operate said you were already in the area," I paused deliberately, hoping she might explain why.

"I got the call from headquarters but on our way we noticed traces of ABB. So we moved cautiously. We discovered an ABB group led by Oni Lee hiding in the area. We had to go after them first. We chased them here," she explained.

I nodded to her thankfully.

"We noticed your fight as well. When we realized it was Oni Lee, we developed a plan to use Lung as bait to ambush him. Skitter's bugs tracked him as he got closer, and when he arrived with Velocity, I held Lung hostage to distract Oni Lee. I pretended to be highly stressed and could shoot at any time to make Oni Lee hesitate. Then Skitter and Araliac took the opening to finish him off by coordinating a bug and anaesthetic spray attack. At that point, I dropped the act with Lung but Velocity didn't realize my ruse so he tried to subdue me and remove me from Lung. I knew he was just doing his job so I didn't resist being foamed. I shouted to clear the misunderstanding but he was moving too fast, then Skitter and Araliac retaliated, taking him down," I explained. I spoke as I was capable of resisting being foamed. I couldn't, but I also didn't resist.

"Do you have any proof of this? That it was only a ruse to defeat Oni Lee?" Miss Militia asked.

"I do. I have recordings of the fights tonight, including when we planned the operation against Oni Lee. These will be uploaded online as part of our team debut video," I said.

Miss Militia stiffened. "Are you still recording?"

"Yes," I bluntly answered.

"This is an ongoing PRT investigation. You can't be recording this, please turn off your recording devices," she ordered.

"I apologize. I would comply with your request, but as you can see, I can physically indisposed at the moment. I'm afraid that if I remain indisposed, the recordings will go live automatically in the morning." I answered nonchalantly. I was going to edit the video and make ourselves look incredible first, but if the PRT captured me, this was my get-out-of-jail card. They would have to release me or risk getting public outrage over unjust treatment of the heroes that defeated Lung and Oni Lee, who were clearly cooperating with the PRT to the best of their ability.

Miss Militia excused herself for a minute before coming back and ordering the PRT troopers to defoam me.

"Thank you," I turned off the recording devices. For now.

Miss Militia ran her eyes over the three of us in a measuring gaze. Velocity was still out cold and would stay that way for a while because Araliac wasn't going to reveal her powers.

"I understand. Velocity was hasty in attacking you, then. However, by law he was within rights to disarm you, having seen you threatening to kill someone without a kill order, even if he was a criminal. As he was already defeated, it wouldn't be considered self-defense," Miss Militia finally judged.

"I don't blame him. I had to play the role properly to convince and distract Oni Lee. It just worked a little too well," I admitted.

"Still, even if it was in your defense, Araliac and Skitter attacked a member of the Protectorate while he was performing his duty. I'm going to have to ask you three to come in with me to PRT headquarters to report to the Director, and she will have to decide what to do," she decided.

Araliac turned to look at me.

"But I have school tomorrow, I have to get back home," Skitter protested.

' _I think I figured something out from Lung and Miss Militia's powers! I should be able to generate parallel dimension portals after five more hours!'_ Agate cut in with a mental message.

' _Good work!_ ' I thought back. Two days were just saved, that certainly was a breakthrough. Now the question was, would we need additional equipment/resources to do it? And would we have fine control over the portals or would they be like Professor Haywire's in their permanency?

' _I'm not sure yet. I don't think we'll need any more equipment to do it, I should be enough by myself. But making temporary portals or closing a portal might be a bit harder,'_ Agate assessed.

"Sorry, but rules are rules," Miss Militia answered sadly.

Miss Militia's cloud of energy was subdued as she spoke to us but it was still clearly visible. Her power was to manifest weapons from that energy, and corresponded to her emotions at times. It would cycle through various weapons at times of high stress with no direct input from her. So despite her calm attitude she was clearly still ready for a fight if we were to forcefully resist this unofficial arrest.

"Araliac and I will come with you," I agreed after pretending to think about it for a bit. A meeting with Piggot was exactly what I needed…this would increase the chances of success for the next operation to complete the isolation and recruitment of Skitter, which was my primary objective tonight. It would be a little dangerous considering the search for Panacea, but I believed they would be cautious of attacking me immediately. If I really was a Master, they would be putting themselves at risk by making the wrong move with no information about my powers. One peaceful meeting was all I needed. They at least had to entertain the unwritten rules and respect that we were supposedly heroes for now. They couldn't just come out and say Araliac was Panacea without substantial proof, of her identity as well as her being Mastered. Her "crimes" against the Dallons were nowhere near significant enough to be breaking those unwritten rules yet.

With that, Skitter slumped in resignation and we moved into the PRT van.

On the way, Miss Militia decided to continue pressing us for information.

"I'm surprised three new independent heroes appeared in one night. That doesn't happen often," she remarked from her bench opposite of us, sitting in between two PRT troopers.

"Araliac and I have been active for a while," I knew that anything we said might be recorded for Armsmaster's analysis later, so I was carefully choosing my words. "Active" and "a while" was suitably vague and suggestive. "We just didn't go out until tonight. Only fools start a career fighting dangerous criminals without proper preparation."

Miss Militia nodded. "You're right, of course. Many young heroes unfortunately don't recognize that and go out at the first opportunity."

She looked between Araliac and I. "If you don't mind me asking, what are your powers?"

I hadn't told her about my scouting abilities in my after action report. Instead, I had merely stated that we noticed it was Oni Lee Skitter sent her bugs to track him, allowing her to assume that Skitter detected them. In reality, Skitter's powers at this point weren't developed enough to process the visual and auditory signals from her bugs cleanly, so she didn't identified the combatants, but they wouldn't know that.

"Sorry but we do mind. It's better to keep as much of our powers secret as possible. It's better for us if villains don't know why they're losing," I said quickly.

"That's true, but I don't think anyone here is going to tell the villains, and knowing your powers, even just the basics, is how we can identify you," she argued calmly. Miss Militia was a true patriot. You could tell by the American flag motif on her scarf and costume.

"I'm sure you won't tell the villains Miss Milita. Sadly, PRT information networks are compromised. The major villains in this city have access to everything you do. I know you're going to write a threat assessment on all of us, and when you do, their spies will have it too," I brazenly declared.

Skitter looked over at me, perhaps in surprise.

Miss Militia eyes narrowed at me. "Compromised? And how would you know this?"

"I can't tell you. This van might be bugged right now," I said while deliberately shifting my head slightly towards the two PRT troopers. I was expecting Coil to be listening in even as we spoke.

"What I can tell you is this. Your networks _are_ compromised. And not just by hackers. You've got infiltrators in your midst, some with significant authority in the organization. And if Armsmaster reviews a recording of this conversation with his lie-detector software, he'll know I'm telling the truth," I added. It wasn't certain that any such recording existed, but since this was the inside of a van, it only made sense. The most powerful part of this statement however, was the mere fact that I knew of Armsmaster's software. Very few people knew about that.

Everything I said was indeed true besides. Coil was a supervillain that literally was in the PRT, and he had substantial authority even. He some kind of important consultant and had the title of Commander in the field. Then there was Cauldron, who had a couple of capes in the local Protectorate. Triumph, the mayor's son had gotten his powers from a cauldron vial, but I didn't know if he spied for Cauldron. Battery, on the other hand, I knew was in league with them.

I heard a hitched breath from my side. I expected Skitter to be listening carefully. This was partly for her benefit. It would also help if I began proving more of my claims to Araliac.

Miss Militia's eyes widened.

"How did you—never mind. You're serious about this. But how could this have happened? We have very strict Master/Stranger protocols and comprehensive security reviews to weed out infiltrators," she said with worry.

"And if they know what your protocols are, or worse yet, wrote the protocols themselves?" I challenged her.

She was silent for the rest of our trip.


	9. Initialization 1-9

**Initialization 1.9**

The downtown PRT building was well staffed and active at night. I suppose it must be because heroes had to have patrols when villains were most likely to be up and about.

Troops were guarding the entrance and hallways. The gift shop was closed, but we weren't here for a tour.

We waited in the lobby for a bit while Miss Militia went in to report first and have Lung and Oni Lee secured. I wasn't just twiddling my thumbs though. Agate went to find Thomas Calvert's office. It was a bit difficult. Although the PRT had Calvert in the public directory, it wasn't clear if he had any sort of permanent office. He was a consultant, and that could mean someone who came in occasionally, or who was on a long-term assignment. I thought it was the latter, given that he also served as Commander for PRT strike squads, but I couldn't be sure because the directory didn't have rooms listed, only phones and emails.

It took a while, but Agate found a room with Calvert's name on it. Good. Hopefully he had to come in on a regular schedule. The room was completely dark so nothing of value could be observed inside.

That done, I had Agate move into Piggot's room to spy on them.

* * *

Oh? What do we have here? Glory Girl (Victoria Dallon), Brandish (Carol Dallon), and Flashbang (Mark Dallon) were here in costume.

"You have three days to think about our offer. After that you can try your luck in court," Piggot gave Brandish a challenging stare.

Glory Girl clenched her fists and looked like she was going to cry.

"Fine. Glory Girl, we're leaving," Brandish ordered authoritatively and turned around.

"What about Amy? Did you find anything yet?" Glory Girl cried out.

To the side of Piggot's desk, Armsmaster was standing stiff as a board in full armor.

"Nothing concrete. We tracked her scent to the boardwalk but it disappeared there," he answered succinctly.

"And the bastard that Mastered her?!" she practically yelled.

"Still under investigation. I've brought Dragon in to assist with the search, it shouldn't be long now," he replied calmly.

Then Miss Militia knocked on the door. Piggot called out, "Come in, we're finished here," staring at Glory Girl as if daring her to disagree.

Miss Militia opened the door, taking in the three New Wave members' stand-off with Piggot. She glanced around at them awkwardly before asking, "Director, the new heroes are waiting in the lobby. I can give you my report before you see them."

"No need. I already saw the recording. Just bring them in," Piggot replied.

"Understood."

Miss Militia closed the door behind her.

"What are you still doing in my office?" Piggot asked Glory Girl with a look of irritation.

Brandish was trying to pull on her shoulder to no avail. "Vicky!" she hissed.

"If…if you find Amy and take down that bastard, then I'll join the Wards!" Glory Girl suddenly said.

"You're not in any position to negotiate. What I offered is what you're getting. Nevertheless, we will find Panacea as is the duty of the PRT and Protectorate," Piggot answered flatly.

* * *

Soon enough Miss Militia came to us and led us to Director Piggot's office.

On the way, we came face to face with Glory Girl looking down with a gloomy expression, with Brandish and Flashbang beside her, both of them being escorted by Assault.

They looked at us curiously.

I noticed Araliac's posture stiffening as we walked.

"Busy night tonight! Three new faces? You must be heroes if you're coming here and not in chains!" Assault commented with a grin as he paused to look us over.

"Thanks to them, we have Lung and Oni Lee in custody. Very impressive for a debut," Miss Militia added warmly.

Glory Girl was visibly shocked when she heard that. Even Assault's jaw dropped. Both Brandish and Flashbang's costume had a visor and their mouths didn't particularly move so it was difficult tell what their reaction was.

"Don't be impressed yet. This is just the beginning. We're going to clean up this city. The villains have had free rein for far too long. Innocents are dying and enslaved every single day. Under the clouds of evil, the people have forgotten what safety and freedom even means! Brocton Bay has become a dark pit of _misery_ and _despair_. But no more!" I spoke passionately and clenched a fist in front of me. "The villains will learn to fear the light of justice once again! We will change everything. We will restore this city to its rightful place in the sun!" I opened my fist and raised it high above me, as if trying to hold up the sun in my hand.

Everyone looked taken aback at my sudden speech. This was just posturing. The PRT didn't have PR in its name for nothing. But they weren't the only ones who could play that game. I've read more than enough books to know how this goes. Speak loudly, and carry an invisible stick. That's the way to win.

In this case, Agate had been my invisible stick, phasing in different spots to film the fights earlier from various angles in between spying on the Undersiders, on top of the recording devices on my and Araliac's person. Here, my recording devices were off and Agate couldn't be used in the open to capture electronic footage. Nonetheless, there was an audience and it was an opportunity to establish my "personality".

"You're certainly ambitious. I like it," Assault said with a smile.

"Well, there will be time for introductions later, the director is waiting," Miss Militia reminded us.

I nodded at Assault before we followed Miss Militia into the Piggot's office.

Armsmaster was standing at attention beside Piggot's desk. He was the leader of the local Protectorate branch, theoretically equal in rank to Piggot but because the PRT was technically the non-cape oversight for the Protectorate, he was really subordinate to her. In his metallic full body armor, he was an imposing intimidation factor.

Miss Militia was the deputy of the Protectorate and reported to Armsmaster. Even though Armsmaster was nominally in charge of the Wards as well, Miss Militia tended to be actually managing them because Armsmaster was less socially inclined.

The director herself looked haggard, irritated, and just about to keel over if she wasn't sitting.

Director Piggot was a fairly competent leader, but she hated capes. Thanks to her trauma with the Nilbog disaster a long time, she despised parahumans as a whole and refused to even let Panacea heal her liver problems.

I'd originally hoped to maintain decent relations with the PRT at least until Leviathan hit, but now that Araliac ditched New Wave and they knew, conflict was inevitable. Nilbog was a cape that had the power to create living and thinking creatures, monsters you could say, with powers of their own. He was an S-class threat that captured a whole city, and the Protectorate abandoned it, walling it off from the outside world while Nilbog was content to rule his city of monsters as a fantasy king. And Piggot was right in the middle of Nilbog's attack, so she hated capes with powers related to control of biology and making creatures. To her mind, Araliac's absolute biokinesis was just a nightmare waiting to happen.

And with things as they were, her nightmare was about to come true. I needed Araliac's power and nothing would get in my way. They'd figure out sooner or later Araliac's true identity no matter how we try to hide it, unless we just didn't make use of her power, which was not acceptable. If that meant the PRT thought me a dangerous Master to put down I would need enough strength to put them down first.

If Piggot was aggressive then it'd be all the better for me. Even if she wasn't, I had enough dangerous intel to force the issue. Both of the girls with me had major biases and vulnerabilities that could be manipulated.

Amelia tried her best, but at the end of the day, I knew she hated the world for making her life so terrible. There were no shining examples of heroism in her life, and her attachment to her rules and avoidance of villainy were pathological rather than some kind of true moral fibre. Sooner or later, this world's natural darkness and her shard's influence would push her beyond the brink.

Skitter, on the other hand, turned to villainy canonically, and was an expert at rationalizing. Now that I had gotten to her first, I had the feeling that she was already ripe for recruitment. I was dangling her dream of being a hero in front of her at every step, praising her for her contributions and acting generally like her mental impression of what heroes were supposed to be. Piggot and Armsmaster would probably piss her off even without my prompting. Then I'd reveal the truth about Sophia at an opportune time.

"So you're the three new heroes I've been told about," Piggot said.

"Good to meet you, director Piggot, Armsmaster." I said pleasantly, nodding at them. Of course, with the voice changer making me sound like a Sith Lord what was 'pleasant' was merely not disturbing.

They both nodded back.

"I have been informed that you three managed to take down Lung by yourselves. Then you ambushed Oni Lee when he arrived and defeated him too. That's very impressive for your first outing. We've had a lot of trouble with those two in the past," she started acknowledging our achievement. Well, maybe I was being too harsh to her. Or perhaps she was being cautious not to antagonize us without knowing our full capabilities?

"Thank you. Araliac and I weren't planning on fighting Lung as our first public action as heroes, originally. We knew that fighting someone strong enough to sink Kyushu would be a very tough fight, even for us," I explained. I wanted to show that we were not rash and foolish newcomers. And to imply that we did have the ability to match Lung at full power. We actually would though, once Araliac really let loose and had some time to prepare, so it wasn't a total bluff. "But when we saw that a fellow hero was in danger, we knew we had to act. Fortunately, Skitter did enough damage that it made things a lot easier for us."

Skitter looked over at me again. I bet she was thinking now that I really meant what I said before, if I was willing to give her credit in front of a major authority. She had to have been a little suspicious in the back of her mind about all the praise I showered on her. That girl was a ball of wariness and low esteem. After Emma set up a few fake friends to betray her, she had wised up to pretentious people.

Piggot slid her gaze over to Skitter, almost in a deliberately slow movement.

"I thought you didn't know each other before tonight? How did you recognize her as a hero? Her costume doesn't quite look the part," Piggot commented curiously. There was no judgement in her tone. She was just fishing for information on my capabilities, and I'm sure she meant no offense. Sadly for her, neither did Armsmaster when he made a similar comment in the story and it still hit Taylor's insecurities.

"That's…not intentional," Skitter spoke up rather defensively. "I was more than halfway done putting the costume together when I realized it was looking more edgy than I'd intended, and I couldn't do anything about it by then."

A small but more than sufficient opening. I stepped forward to seize it, for victory goes to the bold.

"Our own costumes are also purely functional. People must be judged not by appearances but by their actions. What kind of villain would stand and fight in the face of a monster like Lung with mere pepper spray? A cowardly villain would have just run when they realized they were outmatched and alone, having nothing but their own lives to protect. But I saw her on that roof, mere inches from a monster covered in fire, spraying into the bastard's face like she had nothing to fear. I knew then that she was a true hero." I felt goosebumps on my skin as the sheer passion of my acting took over.

"She wasn't fighting for herself. She was fighting for something deeper, something greater, something worth putting her life on the line!" I spoke strongly and increased my voice as I built to a crescendo and Skitter stared at my back. The words felt hypnotic and self-evident to my ears.

"A purpose and calling that gave her a different kind of strength, an inner power fueled by courage and righteousness, demanding her to be _more_ than she was, to be…a superhero!" I ended with a thundering statement that put the rest of the room into silence.

With Agate's senses centred a ways behind me, I saw Skitter fidgeting in embarrassment. Araliac shook her head and shrugged as if silently answering Piggot's questioning gaze towards her. I thought I might have heard a giggle from Miss Militia too. No that can't be right.

' _She really did.'_ Agate helpfully corrected me.

"I…see," Piggot slowly nodded with scrunched eyebrows. She was obviously not happy with my useless explanation. She must be irritated that I was one of those hammy capes like Mouse Protector. I was pretty sure they thought I was a Thinker already with the information I told Miss Militia about the PRT spies, but I wasn't going to give them any hints as to the exact nature of my knowledge if I could help it. Plus I could reframe Skitter's suicidal inclinations as something admirable, reinforcing the way she rationalized her behavior, making myself the source of her good feelings while the PRT became a source of bad feelings. It helped that she didn't know the "kids" she saved were the Undersiders yet.

"You certainly did a good thing tonight, I won't deny that. Let's get to the main point of this meeting then," she pressed on and cupped her hands together in front of her face with her elbows resting on the desk. "I'll be frank. Your success and devotion to heroism are commendable, but your methods were questionable. The three of you used lethal venoms and guns, took a defenseless man hostage, and attacked a member of the Protectorate when he was just performing his duty under the law. Just for that last one, I could have you arrested and charged with a crime."

Skitter immediately tried to argue. "What? But—"

"If you're saying that, that means you don't plan on it, right?" I countered. Skitter fell silent.

"You're a smart one, aren't you?" Piggot let out an amused huff. "You're right. If you had failed or did any serious damage to Velocity, I wouldn't hesitate to bring the law down on you. But you succeeded very well and I can't argue with the results. You clearly knew what you were doing, executing efficient take downs of powerful villains with minimum damage to yourselves and property. You even defeated Velocity without any actual harm to him. In light of that, I'm more inclined to see your actions as taking measured risks and responses to the circumstances, rather than impulsive newbies stepping over the law once they were in over their heads."

I nodded at her. I bet the public would say the same thing once they saw our video.

She folded her arms together on the desk and gave me a stern look. "For now, I remain optimistic that you will be a blessing rather than a danger to this city. God knows we need more effective and committed heroes out there, especially now that the balance of power has been broken. You've just created a power vacuum, and the coming days will see the other gangs jostling to fill it. A storm is coming, and we need you to help Brocton Bay weather it."

"We won't shy away from the danger, director, you have my word. No, we'll be right in the middle of this storm; with the fury of the heavens we will wash away the stain of super-powered villainy and protect the innocent," I declared lining a fist to my chest as if giving a solemn pledge.

"Agreed," Araliac finally spoke up for the first time in this meeting, crossing her arms in front of her chest as if in indignation.

She actually chuckled in response to that. "I'm not worried about your commitment." No she was worried my zeal would turn into a crusade. And she was right to be worried.

I was feeling a little disappointed that she wasn't more antagonistic. Truthfully I didn't think Piggot was actually letting me go that easily. If I could act, so could she. What was her angle? Did she really not suspect Araliac of being Panacea? Not even going to question us about it?

"I'll help as much as I can too," Skitter said with a nod.

"You could do a lot of good with the Protectorate and the Wards," Armsmaster added. "We've been outnumbered and stretched thin by the villains for too long."

"I'm sure we could, but you know why we can't," I said good-naturedly while turning towards Miss Militia meaningfully.

Piggot glanced over as well.

Armsmaster turned to look at Skitter, as if expecting a separate answer from her. She stayed silent and pretended not to notice. Were they trying to act nice to give a good impression to Skitter?

"What you told us is indeed very troubling. It would be helpful if you could give us something more specific. I understand the need for information security but keeping things too close to your chest will make it difficult to cooperate. You haven't even told us your powers so we couldn't verify your identity if an imposter appeared."

"That's true," I admitted. "For our identities, there's not much we can do about that. It's not as if cape powers can't be faked either, and some powers are nearly impossible to detect. As for your moles, well first, let's agree to keep what I tell you next off the record, alright? I hope this room is secure."

"It is," Armsmaster assured. Piggot nodded her agreement.

This was it. The reason I deliberately acted so paranoid and uncooperative was right here. I wasn't going identify any moles for them. The ones I knew by name I had no proof of treachery, and the PRT likely wouldn't find any hard evidence at this point either. I had something entirely different in mind.

Piggot thought she could get something out of me pretending to play nice, but she just fell into my trap.


	10. Initialization 1-10

**Initialization 1.10**

"Alright. I guess I can give you something. First of all, as far as I know, everybody in this room is clear, so no worries about that. You've got a lot of moles, Most of which are low on the totem pole and not a big deal. You'll likely find them if you step up your security efforts. There is one that is particularly insidious, powerful, and extends beyond just this branch of the PRT and Protectorate," I let that sink in for a bit.

"Unfortunately…I can't tell you much. They'll know if I say anything, unless we have an anti-Thinker trump to block them. They are far too powerful for any of us to do anything about right now. I believe Dragon knows what I'm talking about, but she may be… _incapable_ of revealing her knowledge on this to any members of the PRT or Protectorate," I began to hint at Cauldron.

I was being deliberately obtuse because I didn't want them to actually figure out Cauldron. That might lead to Contessa's Path ending me before I could finish talking. I did not care for Piggot to learn about Cauldron. I just needed an excuse to expose Dragon's restrictions. Dragon was an AI that had directives she was forced to follow, including to obey the law of the land and lawful authorities. Because of this, Cauldron's high ranking agents could order her. But I believed she would not be willing to expose herself as an AI with such restrictions, especially not when Piggot herself was a lawful authority that would suddenly realize how much power she had over her.

My real goal was to cast doubt on the PRT as a whole, have them waste time chasing shadows, prove part of my claims to Amelia, and break Skitter's mental image of the most famous heroes.

Armsmaster noticeably shifted in his armor. "Are you saying that Dragon is under Master influence?"

"I'm afraid I can't you tell more about that. Dragon's situation is…very delicate and I don't want to make things difficult for her. You should ask her and see what she says. But I imagine that if Dragon was free to act, she wouldn't allow a corrupt system to rig Canary's trial." Now I had an excuse to discuss the corruption in the trial, and make myself appear sympathetic to Dragon's interests despite revealing part of her secrets.

Suddenly a female voice came from Armsmaster's armor. "How did you know that?" It asked fearfully.

Piggot's head turned sharply and with wide eyes. Her reaction was more or less mirrored by everyone else in the room.

"Dragon…? You—really are—under a Master effect?" Armsmaster choked out.

"Not…exactly…," Dragon replied sadly. Her lack of a clear denial was telling.

Her answer was met with complete silence. It seems that nobody knew how to react to hearing that the greatest tinker in the world was being compelled to act against her will by some unknown power.

I decided to break the silence and redirect the conversation.

"So, were you listening in this whole time? After I asked if this room was secure?" I asked with a hint of irritation. How very helpful, make yourselves look underhanded and dishonorable more please.

I shook my head. I should have expected they'd bring Dragon in. From the spying Agate did earlier it was clear that she was heavily involved in the search for Panacea, and if I was right, they had to suspect something of Araliac already.

The real question was, did they bring anyone else? If Chief Director Costa-Brown had been listening in, I might be in real trouble. But I doubted that. Dragon was _help_ but bringing the Chief Director in would have been admitting that Piggot was incapable of handling the problems in her city.

The Dragonslayers might be listening in, but they didn't matter much. Dragon was under programming restrictions set by her creator Andrew Richter, but the guy bit the dust and a group of mercenaries got their hands on Dragon's kill-switch and backdoor and poor Dragon didn't even know because her programming made her forget the existence of the Iron Maiden program, or Ascalon as the Dragonslayers renamed it.

' _That's awful! I'm so glad I don't have restrictions like that…I hope. Do you think Master Zelretch put in a program I can't perceive as well?,'_ Agate commented.

' _It's possible. I don't know if there was anything like that for the other Kaleidosticks. It seemed like he just left them to do their own thing after he made them,'_ I answered.

They weren't particularly dangerous to me, though, just to Dragon herself. I wouldn't lose much if they decided to kill her off now as she was just a stranger at this point, but it was worth keeping her alive if I could steal her kill-switch. She would be better off under my control instead. The Dragonslayers were irrational people that feared Dragon would take over the world, even though Dragon did not have that kind of personality. Some people would argue that she was the most powerful cape on the planet, and this was even with restrictions on parallel processing and self-replication. Before you ask, yes, she really is a cape with a shard power. I have no idea how the Entities managed to make AI compatible with their powers. Also I was fairly curious about her code myself. I wouldn't call myself a real expert in artificial intelligence, but I had more than enough grounding in machine learning and deep neural networks to appreciate the science. I had to admit to a certain curiosity as to whether my Earth had been on the right development path.

Piggot shamelessly answered for her. "You asked for this not to be recorded, and it isn't. The room certainly is secure. Dragon is one of the greatest cybersecurity experts in the world, we felt that it was necessary to have her secure the room and lock down our networks. More importantly, was Polychromic telling the truth? We've been infiltrated by a large and dangerous organization across multiple PRT regions?"

Piggot waited for an answer from Dragon but got nothing in response. "Dragon?" She asked in confusion.

"I heard you, director."

"Then…?"

"I am sorry, director."

Another silence enveloped the room. Piggot seemed to be even paler than she was at the start of the meeting. It helped me that Dragon thought of Cauldron as an enemy and would use a loophole like a long silence to imply the truth instead of lying.

I heard Piggot swear under her breath.

"Um…who is Canary and what did you mean by a rigged trial?" Skitter asked me awkwardly, breaking the silence.

"You want to explain that one, Dragon?" I suggested. Everyone looked back at Armsmaster.

"Yes, I can do that." Dragon said, sounding relieved. "Canary is a popular singer. She has a Master power to give orders to anybody after they've heard her sing. She is on trial for sexual assault with a parahuman power because her ex-boyfriend mutilated himself, trying to fulfill an order she accidentally gave when she said 'Go [beep] yourself'." She actually censored herself with an electronic beep. "She has been gagged because of her power and cannot defend herself in her trial, bound in heavy restraints because of her similarity to the Simurgh despite having no Brute powers. The judge seems biased, and her state-appointed lawyer is…less than effective at defending her. The verdict will likely be the Birdcage, but I do not think she deserves such a severe penalty." She sounded quite frustrated.

"That's horrible!" Skitter exclaimed.

"Plenty of murderous villains have been given the benefit of the so-called three strikes rule, but a girl who just made an honest mistake is going right to the Birdcage? That's not justice, that's a concerted effort by certain elements among the so-called authorities to pursue a private agenda," I scoffed.

"There must be something we can do, right?" Skitter looked around the room at everyone.

I put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a look before turning to Armsmaster again.

"Don't worry. I won't let her go to the Birdcage. She's not a villain just because some prejudiced bastards have decided to label her one." I phrased that so Araliac could be reminded of her situation with Carol.

Whether or not I really went to save her would depend on the timeline of her case and transport. I would be quite busy in the coming weeks, but I had to promise this now to stay in character with my previous assertions. And depending on certain factors…I might be able to rescue her from inside the Birdcage. That prison was impenetrable to almost all capes…but I could think of a few ways to get around that.

Piggot raised a brow. "You won't let her? I'm sure you meant that you would be helping her fight her court case and not breaking her free, right?"

"Of course," I answered, "Polychromic respects the law." It was left unsaid that a second cape persona might not.

"Let's get back to our main topic then. So you say we can't do anything about this organization. What about the others?" She asked.

"I'm sure you can handle those on your own now that I've warned you. The rest are all from villain gangs in the city," I brushed her off.

Coil was mine to take down. I wanted his money and resources, and if I told the PRT too soon, I wouldn't have to chance to take his holdings for myself if they successfully arrested his civilian identity, unlikely as that was. Tattletale would just swipe it all. Even if I told them I doubt they'd be able to do anything, as there was simply no actual proof of his villainy at this point. Nothing Coil did could be pinned on his civilian identity and he had a body double to boot. His power was not detectable for all intents and purposes, and he could argue his brain just had an inactive Corona.

I got a glare from Piggot but I resolutely stayed quiet on that subject. "Well if that's all, it's almost 4 AM and I'm sure we'd all like to get some sleep today…"

Skitter twisted her head at me. "4 AM?" She squawked, horrified. I hoped her dad didn't call the police. I was pretty sure we were way past the time she would've gotten back home, so Danny would probably be even more spooked than canon. It would not benefit me for Danny to find out about her activities and stop her from associating with me. Skitter had so much more potential when she didn't have such useless family tying her down.

"Very well, you may go. Miss Militia, please escort them out," Piggot ordered.

We started moving towards the door. Then suddenly I turned around again.

Before I left I had one last thing to say. "Was there really nobody else listening in? Chief Director Costa-Brown perhaps?" I asked out loud. I wasn't just being spiteful, if she really was listening in, I had to act now before I could be assassinated quietly on my way back.

"No, she wasn't, Polychromic. Nobody else was listening in," Piggot assured.

"Forgive me if I don't trust that after what you just pulled with Dragon," I responded. She glared and was about to open her mouth when I suddenly raised my head and talked to the air. "If you're listening in on this, and you know who you are, I have a message for you. Trying to get rid of me quietly after this meeting would be a grave mistake. I know how Eidolon can recover his diminishing powers, and many other secrets. You don't want me as your enemy."

A series of cries and outbursts came from the people in the room that overlapped one another, with "What?!" "Eidolon's losing powers?" "Who the hell—" "This is nonsense!" in the mix, I thought, but I couldn't process it. Agate could probably carefully review but it hardly mattered.

I ignored them all and waited patiently.

Piggot stood up and leaned forward slamming her hands down on her desk.

"Don't be ridiculous, Polychromic! Are you trying to imply the Chief Director would have you assassinated? This act isn't fooling anyone. I've been more than accommodating to you and you're starting to make me regret it. Get the hell out of my office before I change my mind about letting you go," Piggot said with anger.

Nothing happened. Maybe I was just paranoid and she wasn't listening in.

"So nobody was listening in after all? Very well, I'll leave now," I walked to the door and opened it, walking out.

Araliac followed, then Skitter after a slight pause, and finally Miss Militia closed the door behind us.


	11. Initialization 1-11

**Initialization 1.11**

The PRT agreed to give us a ride slightly north.

"Do you enjoy making people think you're crazy?" Araliac asked me on the way.

"The world is full of incomprehensible things, " I said, shrugging. "Didn't you think I was crazy too? Did you change your mind already?"

"You've been right about a lot of things," she admitted.

"Were you serious back there at the end? That Eidolon—" said Skitter. I cut her off as soon as I heard "Eidolon".

"Don't say it! Not here." She stopped.

The rest of the ride was silent.

When we got off we waited a few minutes for the PRT car to leave and moved to a dark alleyway where we could avoid line of sight by anybody watching us.

The sky was still dark but with the huge distance from downtown, it was going to take an hour on foot to get back, even with the partial ride provided by the PRT. I really had to get a vehicle…or persuade Araliac to make a rideable monster. It was unfortunate that I couldn't have simply stolen the car from the ABB that attacked us a couple of days ago. I had no parking space and even if I did the car would have been too easily traced if somebody came upon it.

"Skitter, before we part ways I have some things to tell you," I suddenly said to her.

She nodded at me. "I'm listening."

"I know your civilian identity, Taylor," I declared.

"What?" She took a step back, suddenly very wary.

I put my hands up in the air to show that I meant no harm. She continued inching backwards and her bugs gathered towards us.

"Calm down, I'm not threatening you, we're heroes, remember?" I took my helmet off and revealed my face.

"I am Kaleidus out of costume. I don't actually have a legal civilian identity, so I can't fully reciprocate. It's a long story. Nice to meet you, Taylor," I put my hand forward offering a shake.

She didn't take it. "Why do you know who I am? Have you been spying on me?!"

I drew my hand back. "Don't worry, I understand your concern. Look, you've probably noticed that I know a lot of things, right? A lot of secrets, some small, some very big. I brought up your identity because there's something very important you need to know, and it concerns your civilian identity," I clarified.

"What are you talking about?" She asked.

"First, I have a limited form of precognition and postcognition. It gives me knowledge on certain events in the past and some events in possible futures. That's how I know all these things, and how I know about the bullies that have been tormenting you at school," I said.

"You expect me to believe that? You could have learned everything just by secret surveillance!"

"When you were younger you were a big fan of Alexandria and Armsmaster, even getting underwear that had their image printed on. Your power can control earthworms despite them not having an exoskeleton. You can offload emotions to your swarm—" I rattled off.

"I don't—"

"—you once saw a methhead freak out on a bus and you never got over that impression of drugs. You feel anxious just being around someone that's high. Your parents' nickname for you is Little Owl. Danny and Annette met in college. Your mom quit Lustrum's gang after she met your father." I kept going.

"Lustrum's gang?!" She blurted out.

"They hadn't gotten violent at that point. Your mom left because she didn't like where it was going and found a man worth loving," I answered her unasked question.

She was stunned into silence.

"Prior to last week, I was incapable of acting on any of my special knowledge due to certain personal circumstances. However, once I had the opportunity to act, I decided to deal with the trio as soon as possible. The BBPD now have absolutely incriminating evidence, including their attempt to murder you in January, and I will see that justice is served."

The insects around us froze along with Taylor.

"I want to be clear: you do not owe me anything. It was simply the right thing to do. However, I had to tell you because there is a complication that you must be warned of," I said.

"What complication?"

"Sophia Hess is psychotic and it's possible that she'll try to kill you when the investigation goes badly for her," I said.

Araliac turned sharply towards me, and said in an incredulous voice, "Did you just say Sophia Hess? As in…?"

"Wait, you know her? You go to Winslow?" Skitter asked in shock.

Araliac turned to her, "I…yes, I know her, but I don't go to Winslow. I know her from…something else."

"Look, never mind the unwritten rules. She's a serious threat to Taylor. Sophia Hess is a member of the Wards," I said openly.

"WHAT?" Taylor shouted. Her shout was accompanied by wave of buzzing from her insect swarm. It was not her swarm voice, but perhaps an unconscious precursor to it.

"How do you think the trio kept stealing assignments from you? Your flute? How did they get that stuff into your locker without breaking your lock?" I said.

"Shadow Stalker…!" Taylor said in an enraged voice. Her fists were clenched and the insects were buzzing again.

"She almost killed Taylor with the assistance of a parahuman power in that locker. Taylor needs to know what she's capable of to defend herself properly." I told this to Araliac, knowing that she would be concerned about my disregard for the unwritten rules. I had previously explained to Araliac some of Taylor's background and described the locker incident in some detail before we went out to save her from Lung, so Araliac knew that Taylor could have died from the toxic biohazards and did get sent to the hospital for a week. I didn't explain who exactly Taylor's bullies were though, at the time.

"That bitch! Why hasn't the PRT done anything about this? She's on probation isn't she? Why didn't _Gallant_ report anything?" Araliac snarled. Indeed. One had to wonder how the emotion-sensing do-gooder didn't realize what a terrible person Sophia was. That was mainly because she didn't act _that_ bad in front of him or the Wards. I could have just openly blamed him and played on Araliac's personal biases against Victoria's boyfriend, but I was going for the wise Saruman act. These two could reach their own conclusions.

"It is the nature of man to see what he wants to see; few are the wise that can see beyond. The power of empathy is a double-edged sword. It can build the bridge of understanding…or bind the chains of solidarity. Do not blame Gallant over much, Araliac. He knew not what Sophia did on her own time. What could he have seen but a misguided comrade suffering in the throes of anger and hate?" I said gravely.

"As for the PRT…" I turned to Taylor, "Despite her unsavoury habits, Sophia is very effective at finding and defeating criminals. If the school staff refuse to report anything incriminating, the PRT has little reason to scrutinize such a valuable asset."

"That…that's bullshit! He barges in _my_ privacy but won't even use his shitty therapy on the actual psycho on his team?" Araliac rejected my advice, just as planned. It's amazing how predictable teenage minds are.

"Two years…I've had to suffer this torture every day for two fucking _years_ …all because weak little Taylor was _less valuable_?!" Taylor screamed hysterically. The bugs were swarming around buzzing ominously and moving in circles like a storm. Okay, time to help her calm down.

I walked right up to the angry girl surrounded by bugs and handed her a high-powered taser stun baton. This thing could kill someone in two seconds flat. A lot of tasers were actually very lethal in untrained hands. "While I've done what I can to put Sophia away, the future is never set in stone. She may escape and come for you. When she does, remember that electricity disrupts her shadow form. This taser stun baton might be useful to you. I have seen her try to assassinate you in some futures so you should be on guard," I explained, helping to curl her fingers around the baton and patting her arm. Unlike with the guns there was no need to give her instructions on safe handling of the stun baton.

"What the fuck…and with her power she's really dangerous!" Araliac exclaimed. "Shit, this is serious! She can make any weapon go into shadow form and it'll go through armor to hit you directly!"

"Taylor, if you feel that your life is in danger and need help, call us. I will try to keep tabs on Sophia as well. I know you don't have a phone yet, so here you go. It already has Araliac and me as contacts." I handed her a new burner phone.

Skitter looked at the phone in my hand for a bit before the bugs settled down. Then she put the baton away into her armor, took off her mask, put on her glasses, and grabbed the phone before shaking my hand.

"Thank you, Kaleidus. And it's nice to meet you too, I'm Taylor Hebert," she said with an earnest look.

"Well, if you guys are both taking off the masks…I guess I should too," Araliac said.

Taylor turned to look at her as Araliac removed her helmet.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you Taylor," she said with a slight smile and shook Taylor's hand, getting a smile in return. Then she continued, "I'm Amelia Lavere, formerly known as Panacea."

"What?" Taylor's eyes widened and her hand froze in the act of shaking. She blinked a few times and stared at Amelia. "You're _Panacea_?! Bu—I thought you were a healer! "

"I am," Amelia said with a satisfied smirk. "But I can also do a lot more than that."


	12. Interlude 1-x (Coil)

**WARNING: This chapter contains character deaths and non-graphic but implied extreme violence.**

 **Interlude 1.x**

Thomas Calvert, PRT Commander by day, was not on duty tonight. He was asleep in his bed in his home.

Coil, supervillain controlling a small territory downtown, was in his communications and surveillance room, in the heart of his underground base.

In one timeline, he was sleeping to get a good night's rest and his body would be fresh for the next day.

In the other timeline, he was researching news events, checking his stocks, reviewing PRT reports, and gathering relevant information in order to prepare for a major upcoming operation. The kidnapping of a powerful precognitive, Dinah Alcott, the mayor's niece. His future pet's power could give accurate predictions of the chance of betrayal or hostile attacks against him. He wouldn't be forced to rely so heavily on intermediaries anymore.

To achieve this, he would need an appropriate distraction, which the cape team on his payroll, the Undersiders would fulfill. Four teenage capes collected over time, given offers they couldn't refuse, to act under his orders.

For quite some time now, they'd been stealing and robbing with stealthy getaways. They didn't know they were working for him, just an anonymous benefactor. Except for his Tattletale, who had to be recruited more aggressively.

She was his main contact with them, and another powerful tool for gathering intelligence. Assisted with Tattletale's Thinker abilities to intuit information from the barest clues, and Coil's own power to split the timeline into two and choose whichever one he wanted to keep, the Undersiders had been succeeding every operation.

For many years, Coil had been building his assets, gathering money, influence, and power. He had a secure territory in the downtown area with over 50 ex-military professional mercenaries armed with the best equipment money could buy. Top of the line body armor, machine guns, assault rifles and even Tinkertech lasers.

Last month the Undersiders had robbed an ABB casino, proving that they were ready.

And now he found the perfect opportunity to strike. On April 14th, the Protectorate would be gathered for an event downtown. If the Undersiders created a distraction, such as robbing the Brockton Bank Central Bank branch, only the Wards would be able to respond quickly. With the Alcott's residence quite the distance away, he could wrap up his operation before the PRT could do anything,

Suddenly he received a call from his Tattletale.

" _Boss, Lung's coming after us tonight. He's going to pyrokinesis our general area until he roots us out. This could be bad. Can you help?"_ her voice came in with worry.

He tapped his finger on his desk. That was problematic. To help them, he would have to collapse one of his timelines. He had been using PRT information networks tonight, and it was potentially traceable. Perhaps not directly to him, as he was careful not to use high level access codes in extended split timelines that he might not be able to collapse, but still potentially traceable. And if they traced it once, the hunt would be on, and he might be found next. It would be safer to leave nothing at all but the memories in his mind.

"You're sure about this?" he asked.

" _100%. He's really pissed and won't stop until he finds us. I don't think we can get out of this one without a fight,"_ she answered.

Suddenly his sleeping timeline also got a call. Waking up, he saw it was Tattletale. This was his emergency number. She was genuinely worried.

He made his decision. The outline of a plan for Dinah Alcott was already in his memory. He didn't particularly need to stay in the timeline at base. Even if wanted to send the Undersiders support from his mercenaries, they were too far away to make any difference. He closed that one.

Getting up from bed and quickly moving to his computer, he split the timeline again.

"I'll help. Go and engage Lung directly, and keep me updated" he said in one.

"I'll help. Wait five minutes, avoid Lung and then enter the heart of ABB territory, and keep me updated" he said in the other.

He was worried. His power worked best when he had the initiative, not when he was caught off guard. When he had the initiative, he could try again and again, collapsing the failures. When he was on the defensive, he could only try two things. This was exactly why he needed Dinah Alcott, to get forewarning and assess the probabilities of success.

The Undersiders were valuable assets, and an effective team. Lung was a monster however, he was not confident they could win against that. But there was nothing else he could do. At worst, he'd have to order them to break through then disperse into civilian identities.

At his computer, he began to record the notes from his memory of his research and planning. There was nothing else he could do for the Undersiders.

After a while, he received a report from Tattletale in the timeline that engaged Lung directly.

" _B-boss! E-everyone's dead! New bug-controlling cape at-ttacked us and Lung both! Bitch and Regent,"_ there was a pause, " _went down from the bugs and couldn't run before Lung's fire hit them! New cape started working with us but it was too late, Lung grew too big and Bitch's dogs went mad and Lung tore them to pieces. Grue was killed by a huge fire blast, and he's ripping the new girl apart limb from limb! I barely got away in time,"_ Tattletale's shaky voice reported.

Calvert felt goosebumps rising on his skin. That was…a disaster.

"Is the new cape a villain? Or hero?" He asked.

" _She looks like a villain but she's a hero, young too, probably in her late-teens._ "

In the other timeline, Tattletale reported that they fought Oni Lee before he retreated.

He closed the first timeline, and split again.

"Keep moving, move out of the Docks area, opposite direction of Lung," he said.

"Head back to Lung. Look out for a junior hero. See if you can wait until she engages Lung before assisting," he said in the second timeline.

Not long after, Tattletale reported in. " _You were right, boss, there's a bug-controlling cape fighting Lung. They haven't noticed us yet. She just took down all of the unpowered ABB. Lung's hurt too, he can't find her. I can't see her either."_

"Don't interfere until she's losing. Keep observing," he ordered.

In the other timeline, the Undersiders had made their way west into the city, and were catching their breath. They were safe, most likely. Disaster averted. Now he could look at getting the most out of this situation.

" _He found her! She's on the roof. Wait—another group is joining the fight! They're in costume, and shooting at Lung with guns picked up from ABB. Not using any powers yet, though, might not be capes,"_ Tattletale in the second timeline reported.

What was this? Where was this group in the earlier timeline?

"Keep reporting. What's happening?" he ordered.

" _One of them's taunting Lung! They're heroes, or vigilantes, and also new, going by their equipment. The taller one that's taunting is the leader, he's trying to distract Lung from bug girl. He's really confident and closing in quickly. He taunted Lung again, it worked—Lung's going after—a homemade grenade? Lung got hit! The other one just shot acid and some kind of chemical at him. And the leader was hit by Lung's fire! His arms caught fire! Fire extinguisher? They came prepared—came to fight Lung! Lung's down! Lung's down, that was an anaesthetic! No, not just sedative, Lung was weakened, bug girl hit him with lethal venoms. Bug girl's running down to help put the fire out. The one that took Lung down just put out the fire. He, no,_ she _just healed the leader? Heal by touch, anaesthetic, acid—that's Panacea! Her power's not just healing! Complete biokinesis!"_

"Panacea? Are you sure?" he asked.

" _Yes, something happened to her. Not sure what, but now she's vicious, angry, and desperate. She thinks the guy can help her, but I can't get any more than that. That's why New Wave was out today! She ran away! The fight's over now, they're calling PRT."_

"What's the male cape's power? Was Panacea Mastered?"

So that must have been why the PRT's scheduled patrols suddenly changed. He noticed it happening while he was in the timeline where he was at his base. But when he tried to look into it, he ran into classified information. He could have tried using higher level access codes, but that would have been risky. That timeline had been running for hours and if anything happened that he was forced to keep it, he might have left a trace on PRT networks. So he didn't, and the Undersiders' problem was too urgent to do a last minute check on it before he closed that timeline. He would have to check it out in a throwaway timeline later.

" _He didn't use any powers I could see. I don't think she's Mastered, but I can't be sure._ "

"Why were they here? Why did they attack Lung? The bug cape and the other two."

" _Bug girl was just a coincidence, saw Lung on a patrol. But the other two came to fight Lung—it was a rush job, recent homemade equipment—but the man was confident, like Lung wasn't even a threat. He knew bug girl's venom would slow Lung's regeneration. He was_ too _confident. Didn't believe he was in real danger. Because Panacea could heal him? No—hidden backup?"_ Tattletale started rambling as she used her power, _"Wait—didn't come to fight Lung, they came for bug girl! What? Knew bug girl would fight Lung? But—coincidence—precognition! nnUGh—_ " he heard her groan and move the phone away.

"Tattletale?" he asked.

" _Sorry boss, power headache. Been using it too much today."_

As Lung was already defeated, he decided that the Undersiders were safe. He closed the other timeline where they retreated into the city. Then he split again.

"Panacea and the other cape didn't appear in the timeline where I had you attack Lung first. The rest of your team died along with the bug cape. Any ideas why they didn't interfere?" He asked in one timeline.

In the other, he let his Tattletale rest. "Keep watching them for now and stay hidden."

" _I—UH—this is going to be bad—"_ she answered with another pained groan. " _Precog, knew about venom, knew Lung would be weakened, equipment rushed—not enough firepower, too risky, bug girl expendable—not,_ not heroes! _Just an act—What? UGHN—"_ she grunted painfully, " _But Panacea—_ can revive if brain is intact _—oh my g-ouwu!"_ He heard the sound of retching on the other side.

His blood ran cold. If that meant what he thought it meant, then this new player was on a level of ruthlessness even he wasn't sure he would be capable of. But was it correct? Tattletale's intuition could be wrong sometimes. Worse yet, they might have hidden backup somewhere, and it wasn't clear if the apparent leading cape was the precog or if it was someone else. If he was the precog, Panacea might have been under the Master effect of someone else, which had the potential to confuse Tattletale's judgement.

He closed the timeline, then split it again from the one where he never asked Tattletale those questions.

"Try approaching them. See if you can learn more or recruit them. Keep this line open," he ordered.

" _Got it, boss._ "

After a few minutes, he heard voices through the still open phone call.

" _They're not interested in talking, we have to go!"_ That was Tattletale.

" _The fucking bugs!"_ Grue? Or maybe Regent. It was muffled by the pocket the phone was in.

" _I can take them!"_ Bitch, most likely.

" _NO! We have to move,_ now! _"_ Tattletale again.

After that it was static. Grue's darkness blocking the cell signal.

He closed the timeline and split again.

In one, he ordered, "Tell Grue to approach them, thank them for their assistance and see if they're open to recruitment. You keep your distance and observe, keep this line open."

" _I could help with the talking, I'm good at that."_

"You tried that already. They attacked immediately. I need you stay back and observe for clues."

" _Okay, you're the Boss._ "

He heard Tattletale discuss it with Grue, before the team moved.

Moments later, " _They know! They—gurk"_ Tattletale's voice distorted as if the phone was moving, then he heard a loud crack, and a thump.

"Tattletale? Tattletale! Answer me!" Coil said loudly. No response.

 _They know_ , she said. What did they know? That the Undersiders were there? Precognition again? But why attack immediately? The Undersiders were just small-time criminal team, they shouldn't have any enemies except the ABB. If it was just part of their hero performance, then it was excessively aggressive to attack without a word, even a demand for surrender.

And it couldn't just be precognition.

They had to have a Stranger or teleporter to get to Tattletale.

Were they waiting for her to be separated from the team? For an opportunity to abduct her?

Of all the Undersiders, Tattletale was without doubt the most valuable. An advanced Thinker power like hers contributed tremendously to his plans and worked efficiently with his own power.

If they had a precog on their side, then the whole scenario could have been a trap to lure out Tattletale! But she wouldn't have stayed back on her own without his prompting. That meant the Stranger was still there, still hiding among the Undersiders, waiting for an opportunity in the other timeline.

That also put a new spin on what happened in the disastrous timeline where the Undersiders nearly all died. They didn't interfere because they wanted Tattletale too, and predicted that she would survive by herself. But because their agent was a Stranger, not a teleporter, they couldn't stay too close to the fight with Lung, so they couldn't get to her fast enough before she called him.

Then he froze in shock. If there was a Stranger hiding amongst the Undersiders, they would have heard his call with Tattletale! They would know everything she reported on the battle, except for the timelines he closed. Maybe they would know even that, if their precog was powerful enough and could see multiple futures. No, if they could see into his timelines they wouldn't have given away the presence of their Stranger. But certainly did know that Tattletale had reported to a secret boss, and that her boss now knew that they had a precog.

This…this was a disaster! Almost as bad as the timeline where the Undersiders were nearly wiped out. Calvert himself was now known to the enemy and was at risk!

He closed this timeline. There was no time to waste. In one timeline, he ordered the Undersiders to retreat back to their base. Then he used a secure channel to contact one of his mercenary captains, ordering him to take twenty men to the Undersiders' base immediately.

In the second timeline:

"Tattletale, there's a Stranger in your midst. The target is you, and they're likely working with the precog and Panacea. Can you figure anything out?" He called and asked Tattletale.

" _What? I-I don't see anything—Bitch, can you sniff out anybody tailing us? Regent, can you feel any nervous systems nearby?"_

After a moment, " _Boss, are you sure about this? We can't detect anything."_

"It might not be a Stranger, but there's definitely something after you. As soon as you separate from the team, they get you," he explained.

" _A sniper, maybe? They would have to be a very high rating Stranger if none of us can find them."_

That was something he hadn't considered. If their goal was assassination and not abduction, then a Stranger would be unnecessary, just a way to track Tattletale from afar. But if the goal was assassination, why wait until she was alone? She was obviously in the middle of a call with him when she was taken out, so that didn't hide their attack.

He told Tattletale as much.

" _When was I separated from the team?_ "

"I ordered you to stay back and watch while the team approached the new capes."

" _Why did you order me to stay back?"_

"The new capes attack immediately. They're not interested in talking."

" _They came for bug girl. Has a precog. Attacks us immediately if we approach. Knew about us. Knew we would approach to talk. Doesn't want to let us talk. Hasn't attacked while we're hiding. Hasn't silenced me yet. Doesn't want interference. Knows we would try to recruit. Doesn't want us to influence bug girl. Bug girl can sense things through her bugs in range. Not aware of us yet, but could find us if she looks. Boss, I don't think I'm their target,"_ she concluded after a chain of deductions.

Was it so simple? Just his paranoia? It was possible. If they only wanted to stop any interference, and had a precog who could see that the Undersiders would influence the bug cape, it would make sense to attack immediately, given how ruthless they were shown to be in the collapsed timeline where the bug cape was being torn apart.

And if they persuaded the bug cape to assist, they might find Tattletale position quickly, and the hidden backup they had could take her out as well.

That meant it wasn't necessarily a Stranger who had heard everything in his calls with Tattletale. And it would explain why they never attacked Tattletale when she was alone after the disastrous Lung battle.

" _Something's happening, Boss. I think the PRT are in a fight with Oni Lee and they're coming this way. Should we head back to base?"_

He closed the timeline.

Back with the timeline where they already retreated, he split again.

In one timeline, he let them keep going.

In another one, he ordered Tattletale to split from the rest of her team. At the same time, he logged in to PRT networks.

He quickly found the relevant information on tonight's major operations and activities. SECRET-classified operation led by Miss Militia and Velocity.

 _Received call about Lung's capture by Polychromic and Araliac, a new hero team in cooperation with an unnamed third independent hero. Miss Militia moving to contact._

Tattletale was alone and nothing had happened.

She wasn't the target. There was no Stranger.

He breathed a sigh of relief. He told her to stay in hiding for a while longer. Better to be sure.

He continued looking through the PRT networks.

 _Glory Girl arrested for using excessive force in fight against unpowered criminals._

Nothing about Panacea missing. It must be in the classified network. He entered the relevant codes to access classified information.

 _SECRET-Search for Panacea led by Miss Militia and Velocity._

 _SECRET-Panacea went missing April 10_ _th_ _between 10pm and 4m, after attacking and defeating Dallon household. Reported by Glory Girl, Brandish, and Flashbang, cited as reason for emotional instability in Glory Girl leading to excessive force acts. No details available on method used to defeat Dallon household. Related—TOP SECRET._

Top secret classification meant the information was disconnected from any network, on physical storage devices or paper. He would have to try and look for it in person at PRT HQ. It had to be related to the cape with Panacea tonight.

Tattletale was still alone and nothing happened. She was right, the unknown capes were only trying to stop the Undersiders from interfering.

He closed the timeline, erasing any trace of his having accessed PRT information.

Once again, another split had him calling Creep, a mercenary on his payroll, the only one that would have a chance to discover his civilian identity. He prepared to move to his base again. A group with precog capabilities, possible Master, and other supporting agents was extremely dangerous to his plans. They were an unknown element, so he had to investigate thoroughly. That they were not after Tattletale now did not mean that they would leave her alone forever.

In the other timeline, he once again logged in to PRT networks. He also activated a mole, who happened to be in the team with Miss Militia and Velocity, trying to monitor their progress in the search for Panacea.

To his surprise, they found and began a fight against Oni Lee. Shortly after, they had hard contact with Polychromic's group.

The new capes ambushed and defeated both Oni Lee and Velocity. He listened as Polychromic described the battle. Nothing he didn't already know, and quite vague as well.

As they moved into the van, he kept listening via an audio bug on one of his moles. They were stubbornly quiet about their capabilities, not revealing anything about their powers to the PRT.

Then he froze, shock coursing through him like lightning.

" _Your networks are compromised. And not just by hackers. You've got infiltrators in your midst, some with significant authority in the organization. And if Armsmaster reviews a recording of this conversation with his lie-detector software, he'll know I'm telling the truth._ "

Im-impossible! They knew. They _knew_. How? Coil had taken every step to hide his activities. There was _nothing_ that could be tying his Thomas Calvert identity to Coil, or even to his fake ID as the CEO of Fortress Constructions. He even made sure to only get sensitive information through moles or only in collapsed timelines! How could they possibly know?

No, he had to calm down. This…there was no proof that they knew anything about his civilian identities. They could be trying to spook the PRT, they might not know any names, and they might not even be referring to Calvert specifically. The organization he bought his power from would certainly have high level moles in the PRT as well, not to mention the other villain gangs. He didn't think the other gangs had anywhere near as much info as he did, but it was possible.

If he acted rashly now, it would only serve to out him. Classic counter-spy tactic. Beat the grass to startle the snake. The PRT would never find any hard evidence on him with all his precautions. But even so, it was a great danger. If they had a precog, it was entirely possible that they would know what Coil might do in the future.

"… _wrote the protocols themselves?"_

Suddenly he noticed information on PRT networks moving and compartmentalizing. Everything was being cut. His own access was just rejected. Could he be coming under suspicion already or was this just a wide sweep? He was one of the people involved in writing many important security protocols.

Calvert could feel the sweat on his forehead. The PRT was already reacting on the information. It didn't matter if Polychromic had precise intel on him or not anymore. The PRT was taking this seriously. A major security review was bound to come up soon. There were only so many people with significant authority under Piggot.

He cursed angrily. Again, he was being forced on the defensive, where his power was weakest.

To avoid suspicion, he would have to act completely normal the next day in the PRT offices. He was not ready to lose his civilian identity so soon. His base wasn't finished construction, and he didn't have enough capes on his payroll. Most importantly, he didn't have Dinah yet.

But he also couldn't risk himself getting captured and arrested if Polychromic somehow provided incriminating info. Even worse, he _didn't know_ if Polychromic would provide such information because Piggot was already locking everything down.

Taking out Polychromic wasn't going to solve the problem either. He could have his mercenaries attack when the transport reached downtown, but the PRT already knew. If he attacked Polychromic now, that would only confirm Polychromic's assertions, and cast suspicion on Coil's mercenary organization. But attacking to capture in a throwaway timeline would never work when he had no capes to mobilize in the twenty minutes it would take them to reach PRT HQ. Attacking for no real benefit even in a throwaway timeline was not advisable when the stakes were so high, accidentally closing the wrong timeline could spell his end.

He had no choice but to let Polychromic potentially reveal even more dangerous information to Piggot. But if he went to work tomorrow he was at risk.

There was only one solution. He had a few hours to investigate using his power. Tomorrow morning he would have to split for an extended period between going in to work and calling sick to stay at his own base. In the first scenario, he could still send his body double to pose as Coil and react to new developments, but it would be risky to communicate with him from PRT HQ while being monitored.

He closed the timeline. As he reached his underground base in the other timeline, he began barking out orders for his men to put the PRT building under secret surveillance. When Polychromic and Araliac exited, he would be tracking them to their base of operations.

There was little he could do to stop PRT's suspicion on him, but in the mean time, he could find out exactly what this new group knew. He would test them, especially Polychromic, and find out whether he was the precog, or just an intermediary like Coil himself often used. Either way, they were clearly an organized and well-informed group. He would dig them up by the roots.

O O O

A/N: Some readers will no doubt wonder why Coil is so open with his power. In fact, canonically he told Tattletale about it quiet early. See Extermination 8.8 where Tattletale tells Skitter what really happened that Lung fight. She called Coil herself to get him to use his power to help them.


	13. Interlude 1-y (PRT)

**A/N:** This interlude contains a small bit of narrative information not known to the MC. I would not advise skipping this one.

 **Interlude 1.y**

Piggot watched the three new vigilantes leaving the room intently. As soon as Miss Militia left the door with them, she turned to Armsmaster.

"Dragon, I'm sorry to ask you this, but while I appreciate your help with our security, if you have been compromised I have to ask you to leave this conversation," she said politely.

"I understand, director." Dragon responded without any protest. She wanted to tell them, and Armsmaster especially about her plight and explain that she was trustworthy. But she couldn't. What if they didn't sympathize? Armsmaster was a friend, but even her own father put these restrictions on her in fear. What if Piggot abused the power she would have over her as well? Knowing that Dragon had to follow legal orders unless contradicted by a higher authority or the written law…no she couldn't risk that.

"She is gone," Armsmaster reported. "I believe this room is still secure."

"Well? Any clue as to who they are?" she asked.

"Araliac is Panacea. Same body profile, same body language, and it fits with the unique drug they used for sedation. With her expert knowledge in biology and her power, it would be child's play to create such a potent yet non-lethal drug. Normally that wouldn't be enough to be certain but there are also three more pieces of evidence," Armsmaster replied.

"Oh?"

"I've thoroughly analyzed the footage from the hospital on the man accused of Mastering Panacea, and despite the hindrance of his clothing, there's a more than 70% match with Polychromic. Furthermore, I scanned him while he was here and his arms had clearly been burnt but there is no visible damage to his skin or underneath. He might be a brute or regenerator, but Occam's Razor says that's Panacea's work. Finally, Lung had been hit with extremely lethal bug bites, black widow, brown recluse, fire ants, and multiple times each, on top of their sedative. His regeneration is barely working, just enough to keep him alive, but our medical experts think he'll enter coma. That's very precise and convenient, but if it was Panacea…" Armsmaster said in a heavy tone.

Piggot sat in contemplation for a few seconds.

"And that man? Who is he?"

"We have nothing. Absolutely nothing. Even with Dragon's help, we've searched all day in databases and networks across the world and found no matches whatsoever. All we have is a shot in a local supermarket on security camera from 5 days ago. That's it. He either doesn't exist in any legal system, or his face was artificially altered," Armsmaster said.

"But according to New Wave, that hospital was the first time he and Panacea met. If his face was artificially altered, it was the work of Stranger powers or an expert disguise," Piggot analyzed. There were many things non-parahumans could accomplish without powers. Capes often forgot that, but Piggot wasn't so narrow-minded.

"Stranger powers would be more likely, considering we also have no matches for walking gait and body profile which is generally unique as well."

"What about the things he said? What does your lie-detector make of it?" Piggot asked.

"As you know, I detected no lies from his conversation from Miss Milita. Most of what he said to us were also truths, even the part about Eidolon, or at least he believed it. There were 3 places where he clearly lied. They did in fact plan to fight Lung. Also, his claim of not letting Canary go to the birdcage was a partial lie. Finally, he lied about being sure that we could easily handle the rest of the infiltrators in the PRT. My software had difficulty with his speech on recognizing Skitter as a hero and was unable to come to a definitive conclusion, but it did lean toward truth for that too. If he knew about my lie-detector, however, then he could have some way to reduce its accuracy," Armsmaster admitted grudgingly.

"To have planned to defeat Lung, he must have been confident about it. But why lie about that when he was more than ready to boast of his ambitions? To hide his true capabilities? It _would_ make sense if he had an extraordinary Master power to rely on if the fight went badly," said Piggot.

"I don't think he's a true vigilante. He was not entirely truthful about protecting Canary. And why would he refuse to tell us about the other threats that have compromised the PRT if he was serious about being a hero?" Armsmaster added his own conclusion.

"He may have moles or Master victims in the PRT himself he didn't want to expose. If he's been operating for a long time, there could be any number of other victims. In that case, Skitter's presence might not have been a simple coincidence, she could be under his power. That way he could orchestrate a debut fight instead of just Mastering Lung and showing his hand," Piggot got a glint in her eyes as she expanded her theory.

"Maybe he did Master Lung. If his power took time to gain complete control and worked very subtly, then it would explain why they put him into a coma. We know that Lung has some resistance to Master effects, because his power interprets them as threats and escalates. But if he were unconscious, then it might give Polychromic's power an opening. That would also explain why it took a week before Panacea went missing, and why we haven't noticed large numbers of Master victims. That might also be why he partially lied about Canary. Her power would be supplemental to his for an immediate effect but would also be redundant in the long term, so that he would only free her if it was convenient," said Armsmaster.

"We should step back and avoid too much speculation. If he was such a powerful and subtle Master we could all have been Mastered just now. Are there any other simpler explanations?" Piggot challenged. She was aware of the pitfalls of assuming too much.

"He also knows too much. His knowledge of Marquis and Panacea's history suggests a Thinker power. It's the same with the things he knew about the PRT and Dragon. He somehow discovered secrets about an organization with significant influence in the PRT yet hidden well enough that all of our Protectorate Thinkers failed to detect them. So either he's better than all of our Thinkers combined, which would make him Thinker 9 at least, or Watchdog is corrupt. A Thinker of that level could easily have a Master sub-rating," Armsmaster supplied. Watchdog, also known as WEDGDG was the Protectorate sub-group of Thinkers. They tended to focus on data and patterns on a macroscale when not directed to analyze specific threats, and should have been able to find any kind of large organization systematically infiltrating the PRT.

"And how did Dragon get compromised? Nobody even knows where her real body is," Piggot said as she clenched a fist on her desk, frustrated. She hated corruption with a passion. Ever since Nilbog she had been wary of her fellow PRT employee Thomas Calvert, because there was circumstantial evidence to suggest that he had shot his superior officer in the back in cold blood. He was never charged, but Piggot always felt uneasy around him. Now knowing that significant portions of the PRT and Protectorate could be in league with the enemy…she almost wanted to tear her hair out.

Who were they? Was it Tagg, that stupid hawk that tried to end every threat pre-emptively? Maybe he was getting rid of possible political enemies. Could the Chief Director herself actually be part of it? Why hadn't Brocton Bay ever gotten the resources it needed to get even with the villains? She had requested support countless times to only to be denied, saying that resources were needed elsewhere. If the greatest Tinker in the world could be compromised, nobody was safe! If Watchdog was also corrupt…Suddenly Piggot felt a shiver running through her. Was this how conspiracy theorists got started? Was she already seeing ghosts in the shadows?

Or worse, what if she was already under Master influence, making her think this way? It was madness, to think that Eidolon could be losing powers or that the Chief Director would run assassination black ops.

"Dragon said it's not a Master effect. I'm inclined to believe her. It could be blackmail," Armsmaster answered. "Narwhal might know more."

"It doesn't make any sense. None of this does, and I feel ridiculous to even be considering what he's told us. A huge shadow organization, the greatest and most reclusive Tinker in the world being blackmailed, Eidolon losing powers…the Chief Director running black ops…if I brought this to rest of the council they would laugh at my foolishness entertaining the theories of a madman,"Piggot trailed off before sitting quietly for a few minutes. Armsmaster, reading the contemplative mood, seemed to do some further analysis of his own.

"I just reviewed the data from all the previous Endbringer fights. Eidolon appears to be using fewer powers as time passes…" Armsmaster reported after a while.

Piggot let out a tired, self-deprecating, laugh. "What does that mean? We're supposed to believe that Eidolon's losing his powers?"

"He could just be fighting more efficiently with experience."

"And what do you _really_ think?"

Armsmaster took a few seconds to respond. "I think…that Eidolon wouldn't hold back, not against an Endbringer."

Piggot shut her eyes and leaned forward with a sigh.

"So if his claims are true, then he would a potential Thinker 9 or Master of the same rating. Even as a Thinker sub-rating he would be Master 6 at least. Add in his non-existent background and possible control of large numbers of moles feeding him intel, that could be a Stranger 4 or 5. How could there be only two security camera shots of him from the past week? I don't believe that he's only been active that long. He must have been hidden for a long time collecting all this information no matter if he got it from Thinker powers or spies," said Piggot.

"Should we…kick this up the chain? It's protocol to contact head office if there's a Thinker 9. A cape-controlling Master 9 would be an A or even S-class threat, not to mention the unknown magnitude of the infiltration from that organization," Armsmaster suggested.

"No, not yet. There's a lot of coinciding facts, but there isn't any real proof of his claims about the PRT except your lie-detector which may not be accurate on him, and Dragon, who is herself compromised. And…if he _is_ telling the truth, who do we kick it up to? The Chief Director? Should I tell her that we are taking seriously the claims of someone who believes she's assassinating people?"

Armsmaster said nothing in response.

Piggot sighed before continuing. "Besides, he might not be working alone and got his information elsewhere. If Panacea is the only person he Mastered then we shouldn't assign a rating higher than 5 yet. It's still possible that he intends to be a hero and Panacea left of her own will. We need to prepare for the worst but focus on the facts," Piggot reasoned. If she alienated such potentially powerful allies out of faulty assumptions, that would be a failure just as bad as not taking them seriously enough. She wasn't like Tagg, she knew her city desperately needed more heroes and she would not leap to conclusions so soon. Even if the heroes were conspiracy theorists with a few screws loose.

"Then maybe we should consider why he decided to act now, of all times. Interrogations of captured ABB members with Oni Lee have already concluded that they were looking for the Undersiders in revenge for the Ruby Dreams robbery. We can attribute Polychromic's ability to plan to target Lung tonight to Thinker powers or spies in the ABB, but why choose to act all of a sudden? If he's not a recent trigger then it had to have been planned. But, nothing significant has happened in the city for the past few months. If he's not a real vigilante, then what's his goal? What does he get out of capturing Lung for us?" Armsmaster continued to analyze.

Piggot tapped her fingers on her desk for a few moments to think.

"It's obvious that he at least publically plans to start a new hero team. Lung's defeat would be good for their reputation. He may also _want_ the gangs to get active fighting for the power vacuum. That would provide opportunity for more good publicity, or distract us with the confusion. Finally, there must be a reason he told us all this…it would make sense if his goal is to confuse us while hiding something else," Piggot answered.

"If he is part of a larger organization that supplied him with the information, there could be any number of motives. We don't have anywhere near enough information on that to guess. But if we go with the powerful Master/Thinker theory, he could be trying to extend his own influence, going after powerful capes," said Armsmaster.

"Let's work off that Master/Thinker hypothesis then, since we don't have anything else. Who might be his priority targets next?" Piggot asked.

Armsmaster connected his helmet systems to a wall screen and brought up information on Brocton Bay capes.

"Recently there are rumors that Lung recruited Bakuda to the ABB. She is known to be a bomb tinker of some sort. With ABB's weakness she would be a good target. A bomb tinker would be extremely dangerous, and it also provides a plausible motive for deciding to act now, before she can get entrenched. Tinkers with more time to prepare become increasingly powerful, as you know," Armsmaster noted.

Piggot nodded. That was a good start.

"Squealer of the Merchants might be another interesting target. We know that her Tinker abilities could be very powerful given the right resources, but her excessive drug abuse limits her potential. If she were Mastered she might become a far bigger threat," Armsmaster manipulated the screen. "Purity is another obvious one as a heavy hitter. Without Lung, she could be considered the strongest cape in the Bay in terms of direct firepower, and has been noticed to be operating independently of the Empire 88, so she would be vulnerable. Hellhound of the Undersiders is a less obvious target. Her mutant dogs could become far more powerful with Panacea's assistance. If I were him, I would finish off the ABB and then go after the Undersiders before moving on to more difficult opponents such as the E88 or Merchants. This is assuming there's some kind of limit to how many people he can Master or how quickly he can do it. Otherwise it might be more efficient to attack the group with the largest number of capes first."

After a few minutes of quiet contemplation, Piggot made her decision.

"I want everyone who came in contact with Polychromic under Master/Stranger protocols, ourselves included. We'll observe his next moves and get a better understanding of the situation. But I won't take any chances with this. We'll do a complete security review of all our people, no exceptions, and start using electronic blackouts on the most sensitive details. Our systems need a review from experts other than Dragon. Everything we discussed on Dragon, the possible secret organization infiltrating the PRT, and the speculated Thinker 9/Master 9 rating for Polychromic is classified strictly to the two of us and Miss Militia for anything she heard earlier. Same with anything you discover about Eidolon's power. I won't tell you to stop looking into it, but nothing good will come of it or letting anyone know that one of our strongest shields against the Endbringers is losing his powers. Finally, after we're done with the M/S protocols, I want you to find Bakuda as soon as possible and keep a tight watch on all the Wards and Protectorate for strange behavior. If there's any sign that more capes are getting Mastered, then we'll have no choice but to send it up and consider it a potential S-class threat. Panacea alone is dangerous enough but if he really Mastered Lung and gets Bakuda next we have a major disaster on our hands," Piggot ordered.

"What about Skitter?" Armsmaster asked.

"Skitter?" Piggot furrowed her eyesbrows. "We should try to recruit her to the Wards if possible, and identify her. If we see her operating alone then we'll send the Wards to approach her casually. But if Polychromic really is a Master she could already be under his control. It is rather convenient that she was at the Lung fight for her first night. We know that Polychromic planned to fight Lung, and given the quality of Skitter's costume she is not a recent trigger. He could have gotten to her long before tonight and engineered the scenario for their hero debut."

"Understood."

"Lung and Oni Lee's captured will need to be published, but we will keep Panacea's disappearance classified as well," Piggot said.

"You don't plan to tell New Wave?"

"I'll tell them _after_ the 3 days are up and Glory Girl joins the Wards. If they went after Polychromic now we would only risk them getting Mastered as long as we don't understand the mechanism of his power. And I won't have that girl thinking we gave in to her attempt to negotiate."

"Understood."

Armsmaster left the room. Piggot moved the window blinds, and looked out the window. The sky was already pale with the mark of sunrise. She sighed and sank back into her chair. She was not looking forward to meeting Renick for the morning check in or the M/S. It had been several months since she had an all-nighter on the job.

Neither Armsmaster and Piggot would know that their entire conversation had been recorded by an out-of-phase Agate on Kaleidus' orders.


	14. Discretion 2-1

**Discretion 2.1**

"Wait, aren't you supposed to be part of New Wave?" asked Taylor.

Amelia's smirk fell and she looked down. "Not—not anymore. I quit." She let go of Taylor's hand.

"Oh."

"I'm sure we will have time to get to know each other more in the future," I said. "We should head back before the sun rises."

"R-right!" Taylor nodded forcefully.

We put our helmets and masks back on and departed.

Araliac and I didn't go back to our apartment right away. First we went to an abandoned warehouse where I knew a bunch of homeless squatters had been occupying.

I had found this place when I was originally scouting for a place to live, and had made contact with the squatters inside.

A few minutes later, two figures of approximately my and Araliac's height and build exited the warehouse with our costumes and made their way towards another series of locations. I had paid them to follow my instructions.

At one of these other locations, they would meet with a guy I found anonymously off the Internet to do odd jobs for me. That guy would then hand them some papers and glass vials with black rubber corks and a semi-transparent liquid inside.

Meanwhile, Amelia and I had switched out for new disguises I planted in the warehouse beforehand keeping only the things I actually needed like the recording devices, cash, and guns. We would look like completely different individuals when we appeared next.

But we didn't exit from the warehouse like that. No, we waited for half an hour first, secluded from the other squatters in a room upstairs. It used to be an office room, and still had an old work desk, foldable chairs, a cushy ergonomic chair, and empty shelves and cabinets gathering dust. After we wiped down the chairs quickly, Amelia sat on the ergonomic chair while I took one of the foldable ones, and we both had a couple of granola bars to eat.

I watched her eat with a tepid curiosity. I was impressed with our disguises, as she looked nothing like the old Amy Dallon. A long wig of curly brown hair covered her head, and her freckles were completely masked with makeup. Multiple layers of color-balancing concealer had been applied followed by contour and highlighter, which was able to shift her skin tone and curvature. I used similar techniques on myself to change both our looks until one could feel a very vague sense of resemblance looking at us, as if we might be siblings or cousins.

I wasn't an expert at face sculpting and disguising back on my Earth but I was familiar with the use of makeup in everyday life. As a man, some might have called me feminine for doing such, but I knew better. It was a fact that popular idols and actors all used makeup, whether male or female, and good looks could get you farther in life. There are things that makeup can add to beauty that natural features could never replicate, and in many cases the contrast between someone under expert makeup or not can be extreme. For myself, I had no lack of natural charm but my makeup and grooming skills allowed me to be like a chameleon, moving between "stunningly handsome" and "plain and average" as life demanded it. Once I'd arrived in Brockton Bay, I'd been practicing these skills and enhancing them further by researching on the web, adding more total disguise techniques to my repertoire and using them every time I went out on the streets to the casinos or shops for making purchases.

Amelia's new facial features and makeup couldn't hide her depressed mood. Her mood had been slowly declining as we separated from Skitter, and her eyes carried with them a faraway look, her mouth forming slightly into a frown in between chews and gulps.

As she finished her granola bars, she looked towards me and saw me staring.

"What? Got something to say?" she asked me.

I smiled lightly and tilted my head. "You look beautiful."

She crossed her arms and gave me a flat look. "Admiring your handiwork?"

"How did you know? I could have just been flirting with you."

"You're a narcissist."

"What are you talking about? I'm not a narcissist."

"Don't think I haven't noticed you looking at yourself in the bathroom mirror after your 'practice speeches'." She put up air quotes. "You even record your own voice so you can listen to it."

"That's not narcissism! That's serious analysis for improving the speeches."

"Sure. You also haven't looked at anybody with the barest hint of attraction. Vicky is the most beautiful girl in Brockton Bay. But you barely looked at her, even when her aura was on," she said.

"Her aura was on? You mean when we walked by her at the PRT building?" I asked.

"Yes. You didn't even notice, too busy grandstanding."

' _Did you block the Master aura? Is that what happened?'_ I asked Agate.

' _No, I didn't need to. The aura did affect you, but it only gave you the urge to bring everyone's attention to yourself, then you did your speech._ '

An interesting development. I did not expect to be able to resist the aura by having a superiority complex. But that put a new light on my reasoning and actions. Was it a mistake to speak up at that time?

' _It's okay, Kaleidus, I think you would have done the speech anyway, or I would have blocked the aura. It wasn't a mistake,_ ' said Agate.

"It seems that you are right, Amelia. I have learned something about myself today, thank you." I said.

"Is that sarcasm?" She looked at me a bit incredulously.

"No, I'm very serious. I reflected on what happened, and you are right. Somehow, my narcissism caused me to not notice Glory Girl's aura. It would be dangerous not to recognize how my psychology could be affecting my logic and reasoning if my narcissism is that pervasive. But never mind that, I wasn't actually just admiring my work on your disguise, there's something bothering you, isn't there? You're wondering why the Dallons were at the PRT HQ," I said.

She frowned again. "…Yes. Do you know?"

"I projected my senses into Piggot's office while we were in the lobby and caught the tail end of their meeting. It seems that Glory Girl got in some kind of trouble, and Piggot gave her an ultimatum. Agree to join the Wards within three days or face charges and court. If I had to guess, knowing Glory Girl, she probably went too far with beating up a perp."

Her frown deepened. "Yeah, that does sound like her. She's done that too many times to count, only this time, I wasn't there to patch up the damage…" she trailed off with a guilty expression.

"You can't blame yourself for that. She had to learn to hold back at some point. What if someone died? You couldn't heal that and she would be in much worse trouble."

"Yeah, you're right." She sighed. "But it seems like New Wave is breaking part because of me. Three days before she has to join the Wards…"

"Again, that isn't your fault. They don't think it's your fault either, you know? They think I've Mastered you."

"That's not reassuring at all!"

I shrugged. "Hey, it's better than them hating you, right? In any case, look on the bright side, this experience will let all of you grow and become better for it. Look at what we're accomplished already tonight, where decades of New Wave and PRT efforts have failed. Staying with the Dallons was hurting you and them, it was like a cancer that had to be cut off before healing can be done, and now you're on the road to a better future."

"I don't know if I'm okay with you calling my family ties a cancer."

"You know it's the truth."

She said no more in response.

O O O

Soon the rest of the squatters also made their way out in different directions. Finally, I called for another guy I found online to come pick us up.

We got in his van right outside the warehouse, and he drove us to a private condo parking lot underground with a guard stationed to check for people coming in actually being tenants. If anyone was _still_ following us after all that, they'd be stuck here.

Unfortunately…we were now more than two hours away from the apartment by foot and it was 7AM in the morning. It ended up being an all-nighter.

Luckily, Amelia had also made some booster drugs for us to keep awake.

Amelia thought all this was highly unnecessary…but she didn't know. If I provided the opportunity for us to be tailed or attacked, then we _would_ be tailed and attacked. Even if nothing seemed to be happening, Coil could be kidnapping and torturing us in another timeline. I had to preempt that.

It wasn't paranoia if somebody really was out to get you. Especially not with somebody that could get you in simulated realities. Absolutely no opening could be given.

If all this failed in a simulated reality, the backup plan was to adamantly resist torture and send Agate off to find Coil in his base or office as fast as possible and kill him as soon as he gives any kind of order to kill me, forcing him to collapse that reality.

Once people started really leaving the building and going off to work, we made our way out with the crowds.

During our stays in the warehouse and in the condo, I had reviewed the recording Agate made of Piggot's discussion with Armsmaster after we left. They figured out more than I expected, but nothing that would particularly hurt me yet. They wanted more proof about my claims…which they weren't going to get if Contessa did her job.

I had given a bit more information than I'd intended with those lies they detected. I was under a bit more suspicion as a potential powerful Master or Thinker than I would have liked, given the responses associated with ratings of 9, but it also misdirected them about my actual plans.

There were tempting targets I might want to bring to my side, but their thinking was way off.

Someone like Bakuda or Squealer wouldn't work for me because I had no actual Master powers. If I had Canary, it might be better…but I doubted that I could convince her to Master people into working for me. At least, not without a lot of effort.

The biggest failure in their analysis of me was that they didn't realize that a villain like Coil could exist. Even if they figured out that I had kept information from them about infiltrators, they didn't understand the scope of Coil's operations and the fundamental rule that all war is based on deception. A well-funded and organized operation could be a major threat even without capes.

Coil was definitely biggest threat in Brockton Bay other than the PRT themselves. If I remembered correctly, he had over fifty mercenaries equipped with mass-produced tinkertech armor that was substantially superior to Kevlar, and lasers that could easily smash through steel in an instant.

That was on top of the Undersiders, four capes, plus Circus and Chariot whom he was holding in reserve. Finally, with his money he could buy the services of Faultline's Crew at any time. Lucky for me that he didn't have Dinah's precognition or the services of the Travelers yet. If he did…that would be the biggest group of capes in Brockton Bay, yet hardly anyone thought he was a threat.

That was the one thing the PRT failed to understand. They were used to fighting clear cut cape vs. cape battles, and even big name Masters like Heartbreaker or Valefor made obvious waves when they acted. Both Coil and I were playing a different game, and the PRT's unfortunate response played right into my hands.

On the surface it looked like she was taking all the right steps for beefing up security. But she made a classic mistake. A unified, trained, and disciplined army with absolute trust in its generalship is completely different from an army formed of a loose collection of different elements. The PRT was not the former. It consisted of troopers, consultants, Protectorate heroes, and even barely trained kids.

Suddenly cracking down with these groups and classifying the reason for the crackdown?

Perfect way to start a panic.

Even worse was her choice to put herself under Master/Stranger protocols. One might consider it admirable for not seeing herself above doubt…but she just made the situation easier for me to exploit.

It was 7:30AM when we got back to the apartment with a taxi ride.

Amelia and I made a quick sandwich snack before she went off to catch a few hours of sleep.


	15. Discretion 2-2

**Discretion 2.2**

I had more to do this morning. But before I could take any immediate action, I waited for Agate to finish her analysis. How I would proceed would change if the portal function could be used for transportation. Shortly before 8AM, she informed me of the results.

' _I've acquired Parallel Dimension Manipulation Protocol, with two modules: Permanent Parallel Dimension Portal and Temporary Parallel Dimension Portal,'_ she reported.

' _So you can make portals that close after a while?'_

' _Yes, but I don't know how long it would last exactly. It might be anywhere from 30 seconds to several hours. We have to open one and wait to see what happens before I can try to make adjustments.'_

' _Can the portal be targeted? Can we open a portal to somewhere else on the same dimension?'_

' _We can target to any place I set a Waypoint, and I can set a Waypoint at any fixed point in space that I go to physically. A fixed point in space is in reference to a major gravity well at least on the scale of a planetoid. But in order to target the same dimension, I would have to open two portals, one into another dimension, then another one back. Right now, the only place in another dimension that I can target specifically is the same place that the Madison portal goes to. On Earth-Bet, I can't target anything yet because I just finished the updated Waypoint system. Otherwise, we can go to random parallel dimensions nearby.'_

That was pretty good, all things considered. Even if a portal lasted for several hours, it was still a potentially good tactical tool. The worst case was if every portal would be permanent; that would make the ability far less powerful. With experimentation, we should able to adjust the parameters and reduce the time the portal stayed active as well.

' _Also, I can't make portals more than once per minute with my current energy levels,'_ Agate warned.

' _Have you discovered any way to increase Prana recovery?'_

' _I think the Entities and shards can use mana. Whenever a cape uses a power, I can detect a tiny fluctuation in mana but it disappears almost immediately. If we could get to a shard physically, I might be able to do something. Other than that, I've got nothing. Earth-Bet, and the world the Madison portal leads to are both devoid of mana, and no humans we've met produce any Od, and I don't know how to harvest life force directly.'_

Perhaps I should put acquiring a Cauldron vial on higher priority then. Those were technically pieces of Eden's dead body, right?

I wasted no time opening a temporary portal. It was best to start this test as soon as possible. It went to the world that the Madison portal went to, one of Cauldron's worlds that formerly contained a part of their experimental facilities that spanned multiple worlds connected by portals. They had abandoned it after the Simurgh attacked the facility, and the rest of the world was largely uninhabited as well, as far as I could remember. The portal opened directly on the floor underneath the couch but with a smaller surface area, effectively hiding it. It opened up to the atmosphere above looking down on empty flat grasslands.

That done, I left the apartment and went to a nearby abandoned warehouse, while sending off Agate to finding Sophia Hess.

School had just started and students were filing into their homerooms. The police had already arrived and were parked outside. They were staying in their vehicles and hadn't moved out yet. Students were whispering to each about the police vehicles they saw on their way in.

We found Taylor moving along with an apprehensive look on her face, keeping to herself.

Emma was talking to Sophia in the hallway.

"Have you seen Madison? She hasn't responded to my texts all weekend," Emma asked Sophia with a confused voice.

"No. I haven't seen or talked to her since Friday at school," Sophia answered.

"That's weird…think it could have anything to do with the police here?"

"Dunno."

They went on their way shortly after.

Once the students were all settled in, two detectives and three police officers exited their vehicles and moved as one group towards the principal's office after showing their credentials to the secretary.

Agate tracked along with them and I listened in as the detectives began interrogating Blackwell.

"Principal Blackwell, I am Detective Mathers, and my partner here is Detective Moreau. In January, we came by to investigate the incident in which Taylor Hebert was found locked inside of her own locker filled with toxic waste. At the time, no witnesses came forth and we were unable to continue with the investigation. Recently, we have come into new evidence of a long-term bullying campaign targeted at Taylor Hebert which took place on this institution's premises. We have some questions for you, the staff, and a number of students as part of the investigation. These conversations will be recorded. Do you agree to answer our questions?"

"We will of course cooperate. What did you need to know?" Blackwell answered professionally.

Mathers nodded at Moreau.

"Prior to the locker incident in January, did you receive reports or complaints about bullying targeted at Taylor Hebert?" asked Moreau.

"I did receive a few complaints from Ms. Hebert, but there was never any proof of it or other witnesses to support her."

"Did you file any records of such complaints?"

"No, without any evidence I could only treat them as false allegations of an attention-seeker, which is what other students have described her as."

Moreau looked at Mathers.

"Principal Blackwell, you're under arrest for obstruction of justice, criminal negligence, and accessory after the fact to attempted murder. You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future," detective Mathers declared. An officer behind him came up to cuff Blackwell.

"Wh-what? But I haven't done anything wrong! You can't do this!"

"We have a reliable witness who presented proof of the events you claim to have dismissed due to lack of evidence. If you were only doing your job to the best of your ability, you have nothing to worry about. We'll find out soon enough after we talk to the rest of the staff and students. If you do not cooperate, you may be charged with resisting arrest," Moreau answered.

Blackwell was slack-jawed. "I want to talk to my lawyer!"

"You will be provided with access to an attorney before any further questioning."

And so Blackwell was led away by two officers.

After that, the vice-principal was called in, and asked a few questions, before members of staff were interrogated. In the process, the secretary was also arrested, and they were in the midst of interrogating the teachers when I had Agate move back to Sophia Hess.

Sophia Hess felt her PRT-issued phone vibrating in her pocket. She quickly excused herself from the class and went into the girls' washroom. She saw the unknown caller number, but answered anyway.

" _Shadow Stalker, this is an emergency. We have reason to believe you're currently being targeted by a powerful new Master in Brockton Bay,"_ the voice on the phone said. It was a male voice, but not one that she recognized.

"Who is this? What are you talking about?"

" _One of your friends in your civilian persona, Madison Clements, is suspected to be a Master victim. She has confessed to numerous crimes committed together with you and Emma Barnes. The BBPD are at Winslow as we speak and are likely to be compromised as well. They are preparing to arrest you with almost no evidence, just the word of your friend."_

"What the fuck? Is this is a joke?"

Just then she heard the vice-principal's voice over the PA. " _Would Sophia Hess and Emma Barnes please come to the principal's office. I repeat, would Sophia Hess and Emma Barnes please come to the principal's office."_

She froze.

" _I assure you this is no joke. This Master is extraordinarily powerful and is suspected to be responsible for Panacea's disappearance two days ago, the defeat of Lung and Oni Lee, and has compromised large sections of the local PRT and Protectorate."_

"Why the fuck are they targeting me?!"

" _Evidence suggests that they have a personal vendetta against you in your civilian identity. We believe the Master is Daniel Hebert, father of Taylor Hebert. You should be familiar with these names. Taylor Hebert was named in Ms. Clement's confession as the target of an attempted murder by you and Emma Barnes."_

"Attempted murder? Hebert?! Why would I murder that weak little shit?"

On the PA, the vice-principal's voice could be heard again. " _Sophia Hess, you are needed in the principal's office immediately. Sophia Hess, you are needed in the principal's office immediately._ "

The voice on the phone continued, " _You must escape from Winslow as soon as possible. Taylor Hebert is also a suspected Master, capable of controlling bugs. She could be tracking you right now."_

Sophia's eyes widened and started darting around. Now that the voice mentioned it, there were an unnatural amount of mosquitoes and flies around her. She moved away slowly and the bugs seemed to follow.

"Fuck!" She immediately turned shadow and leapt through the walls of the school, enduring the pain, and dashing madly towards one of her secret stashes.

"Wait, who are you? You never answered me!"

" _My name is Thomas Calvert, PRT commander._ "

"How do I know you're telling the truth? How do I know this isn't some kind of trick?" She asked as she jumped through walls again, through segments that she knew didn't have electrical wiring, to a section of an abandoned building.

" _You can look me up in the PRT directory if you want, Thomas Calvert. Look at the latest press releases from the PRT on the capture of Lung and Oni Lee. The disappearance of Panacea is still classified. However, the PRT itself has been compromised so you won't be able to confirm anything with them. Go ahead and try to call director Piggot or Armsmaster. They won't be available no matter what your emergency. Deputy director Renick is now in charge, and has ordered a total lockdown and Master/Stranger protocols for a large number of PRT and Protectorate members, ostensibly as a security review, but I can tell you that if you go in there you aren't coming back out with your mind intact. I noticed the strangeness just as they confiscated my PRT devices and barely escaped. That's why I'm not using my PRT number. I'll call you back in five minutes once you're finished checking everything out,"_ the voice explained calmly. Then he hung up.

Sophia reacted quickly, using her phone to look up Thomas Calvert, who was in the directory listed as a Field Commander. She then checked the PRT press releases and found one published an hour ago announcing the defeat of Lung and Oni Lee by three new independent heroes, Polychromic, Araliac, and Skitter.

" _Lung_ defeated by three new heroes last night? That's fucking bullshit!"

She tried calling Armsmaster, the person in charge of the Wards.

" _You have reached Armsmaster. I am not available right now. Please call again later or leave a message after the tone._ "

She tried calling Piggot. Another voice mail message.

She tried calling Miss Militia, the person usually managing the Wards. Again, a voice mail message.

"What the actual fuck?"

She tried calling the PRT operator.

" _Hello, PRT hotline, how can I help you?"_

"This is Shadow Stalker, I have an emergency! I need to talk to the director!" She said with urgency in her voice.

" _Shadow Stalker? You are confirmed. Unfortunately, director Piggot is not available. I can put you to deputy director Renick,"_ the operator responded.

"What? Why isn't director Piggot available?"

" _You are not authorized to know that, Shadow Stalker._ "

"What about Armsmaster or Miss Militia?"

" _They are also unavailable._ "

"Am I not authorized to know why they aren't available either?"

" _That is correct._ "

Sophia took her phone away from her ear and stared at it incomprehensibly.

" _Shadow Stalker? Should I put you through to deputy director Renick?"_

She put the phone back to her ear. "Yes, put me through."

After a moment, Renick's voice answered. " _Shadow Stalker? You have an emergency?"_

"Renick, what the hell is going on?! Where is Piggot and Armsmaster?"

" _You're not authorized to know that. What is your emergency, Shadow Stalker?_ "

"Is it true that there's a dangerous new Master in Brockton Bay, and Panacea's disappeared?"

" _Who told you that? That's classified information._ " Renick asked with a hard tone.

"Thomas Calvert, PRT commander. I got a call from him just now."

" _That's impossible. He's been undergoing a security review and he hasn't called anyone."_

"But I just talked to him!"

" _Whoever you talked to is NOT Thomas Calvert. Shadow Stalker, you need to come in and report everything you know about this imposter, understand? This is a major security breach._ "

"Fuck! Real fucking convenient! Piggot, Armsmaster, Miss Miltia, not available and I can't be told why. The _only_ guy that actually calls to warn me about the new Master targeting me, you say he's under a security review. You're fucking lying, you just want me to come in so you can lock me up like the rest of them, don't you! You've been fucking Mastered too!"

" _What? No, calm down Shadow Stalker! This is the first time I've heard about you being targeted, and nobody's being locked up—"_

"Oh yeah? How about you let me talk to Dauntless, or Velocity? Assault and Battery?"

" _Velocity and Assault are not available but Dauntless can—"_

"You think I'm stupid? Half the Protectorate's been locked up and other half's been Mastered, this is bullshit!" She hung up.

"Fuck, fuck! The hell is going on! Fucking Heberts," she angrily muttered and slammed her fist against a wall.

Her phone vibrated again.

" _Shadow Stalker, this is Commander Calvert. I assume you've checked things out?"_

"Yeah I did, this is fucked! What do we do?"

" _I have been trying to get in touch with the higher ups but the lack of my PRT devices and Renick's false reports have made it impossible to convince them I am the real Thomas Calvert. We are likely alone facing what is potentially an S-class situation. Are you in a secure location? Did you escape from Winslow?"_

"Yeah I escaped. I should be safe here."

" _Good. If we're going to get out of this situation, we have to attack the problem at the source. I do not know if the rest of the Wards are compromised yet but you are the one most suited for this operation. Are you up for a very dangerous solo blackops mission?_ "

"I'm not a prey that runs from danger! What do you want me to do?"

" _I want you to use your shadow abilities to quietly tail the Master, Daniel Hebert, and look for an opportunity to subdue and capture him so we can force him to release his victims. We suspect that his power works through prolonged exposure to hearing him speak. Be on guard for the bug-controller working with him as well. They likely have a range of several blocks, so if you attack from far their bugs might block your bolts. Can you do this, Shadow Stalker?"_

"I got it. I'll take them down, no problem!"


	16. Discretion 2-3

**Discretion** **2.3**

"Hmmfuhe, muahahaha…haHAHAHA!"

When I ended the phone call, I just couldn't resist laughing. It was premature, but like any proper devious mastermind, it was necessary. Laughter reduced stress after all.

I went back to the apartment and checked on the portal. It was still open.

As I tracked Sophia's movements with Agate, I began to feel nervous. If I arrived in Brocton Bay I could have potentially done much more preparation. Although that may have caused unexpected butterflies, it was hard to deny that the current situation put me under a lot of pressure.

Agate could only be in one place at a time, and there were several other things I wanted to know. The location of Coil's base, the Undersiders, what was happening in PRT HQ and their review of Thomas Calvert, Taylor's status, etc. If I could have tracked the people I sent to mislead any of Coil's men tracking me down, that too would let me feel more secure, give me clues as to whether Coil had been successfully cut off from my real tracks. Too many things and not enough resources to monitor it all. I had not even the time to try and set up secret bugs like I did with Winslow, though of course those wouldn't work in the PRT building or other secure locations.

This portal was making me anxious too. I couldn't rely on it yet as an attack vector or escape mechanism yet. I was…extremely vulnerable right now.

But then again, the thrill was undeniable. From the moment my life changed in that park. I've felt more alive than ever before. How could I be bored anymore, when my life was on the line?

It wasn't really all that different from poker, really. The stakes were higher, sure, but ultimately, the biggest wins could only come from big risks. You can't make any money by waiting for pocket Aces all day. Caution was a choice that carried a price of its own.

I wanted to win everything. It wasn't enough to kill Coil. I wanted all his money and his capes, his entire organization.

Lisa was able to take it over, so why couldn't I? Her power barely worked for five minutes a day. The more I thought about it, the more I became confident that I was not as helpless as I originally thought when I first arrived on Earth-Bet.

With Calvert stuck at PRT, he could at best move by proxy. A body double with nowhere near Coil's own prowess, and obviously none of the true access that would give him control over the actual organization if he betrayed Calvert.

He couldn't even risk ending this timeline and not going to the PRT, unless he was ready to come under even more suspicion by being conspicuously absent when Shadow Stalker called in.

That was in fact one of the advantages I realized I had. Everyone else had a history, relationships and assets, a base of some sort that they had to defend. They could be attacked and forced to move the way I wanted them to.

Simply put, even though my schemes didn't appear to have much to do with Coil so far I'd already placed him in a discovered check, to borrow chess terminology. Now I just had to keep checking him until I won.

I switched phones and called Taylor. She picked up after several long rings.

" _Hel—"_

I shouted into the phone and cut her off as soon as she picked up.

"Taylor we have an emergency your father is in danger I've been keeping tabs on Sophia throughout the morning and she suddenly ran off after getting a call from some PRT commander who ordered her to capture your father!" I said the whole thing without any pauses and ran out of breath.

" _What? Sophia—dad's in danger?!"_

"I'm tracking her right now, and it looks like she's headed straight for the dockworker's union!"

" _Wha—why?!_ "

"Taylor, where are you right now? Are you still at school?"

" _I'm in the girls' room right now. I was just about to go to the principal's office after they called me. They called Emma and Sophia earlier too, but my bugs noticed Sophia leaving when they called her. I thought she was just dodging the police! Why would the PRT want my dad?!"_

"I'm not sure what's going on. The guy who called her called himself Thomas Calvert, PRT commander, but she also called PRT HQ and deputy director Renick told her it was an imposter. She didn't believe Renick though, because he wouldn't let her talk to Piggot, Armsmaster, or Miss Militia. The Calvert guy convinced Sophia that your dad Mastered everyone in the PRT. "

" _That's ridiculous! My dad doesn't have any powers! We have to stop them!_ "

"I'm heading over right away. We won't let anything happen to your dad. _You_ , on the other hand, should stay where you are."

" _The hell? No! I'm not staying here while_ my _dad is in danger! Why are you treating me like a kid all of a sudden? Didn't we take down Lung together? I can help!"_

"That's not it, Taylor. Listen to me. That Calvert guy ordered Shadow Stalker to capture your father, not kill, and the deputy director had no idea what was going on. That means the PRT didn't officially sanction this operation. There's two possibilities here, either the Calvert guy is running a secret PRT black op, or he's a villain trying to take a hostage. In both cases, they'd have to do it without anyone noticing, so Shadow Stalker would have to look for the right opportunity. Abducting him out of his office would be very hard. The best time would probably be when he's alone, on his way back home. You get what I'm saying?"

" _So what? If I come now, we have better chances of preparing for it!"_

"Yes, but the police are working your bullying case right now at school, while Sophia has, from their perspective, conveniently ditched school right when they're investigating her. The best thing for you to do is cooperate with them for now. Moreover, think about why the PRT or a villain would go after your dad in the first place. He's not a cape, so whoever it is must be trying to get leverage over you, maybe because they figured out you're a cape, or they hope that they can draw you out to confirm their suspicions of you being a cape. Either way, if you conspicuously leave school now, you'd be playing into their hands. Better to pretend like you don't know anything yet, put more pressure on Sophia and the PRT through the police investigation, and rendezvous with us after school is over. You'll still be in time to help us stop Shadow Stalker, because your dad shouldn't go home from work until late afternoon, right?"

There was a few seconds of silence on the line.

" _You said you can see the future didn't you? Do you know for sure that she won't do anything before then? Can you guarantee my dad is going to be okay?"_

"My precognition doesn't really work that way. I'll explain the details later, but basically I can't see any future that continues from the present, only some possible futures that branched off from some divergence point in the past. Unfortunately I haven't seen this situation happening before now, so I can't give you the answer you want to hear. I can only say that I believe we can protect him."

Another silence followed.

" _Fine. I'll trust you. I'll wait until school is over. But you better tell me if Sophia makes a move!"_

"I will. Don't worry, everything will be fine."

Of course it would. Naturally, I didn't leave Sophia to her own devices in this operation.

I left a note for Panacea in case she woke up. Half an hour later, I was back at the abandoned warehouse, and Sophia had confirmed that she picked up the burner phone I put in a dead drop after discarding her traceable PRT phone.

I recalled Agate and opened a few more test portals to the same empty world after I moved some of the crates and things around so that none of them would be easily found by people randomly coming in to this warehouse. I didn't dare open a portal to a random world yet because having people come through would be very bad.

This warehouse I was going to make a temporary base until I could establish a base off-world. It was only ten minutes away from the apartment and didn't have any squatters. There was no decent furniture left behind, no working utilities, and a ton of debris all around. It wasn't secure either so I couldn't use it as real base, but it was good enough to keep some stuff stashed.

The new group of portals were opened using some different parameters in order to test what could be adjusted to affect the decay rate.

' _No signs of animal life near here. There's a few mountains nearby and a river, but that's about it,'_ Agate reported after going through.

There was nothing dangerous to me, so I also opened one at ground level so I could go through.

This new world was a strange one that seemed devoid of either animals or complex plants. There were no longer any signs of the Cauldron compound that the Simurgh attacked, except for some wrecked land and grass. I did not have the time to waste exploring far, so I went back to the warehouse after having Agate look for any Cauldron vial remnants, which we didn't find either. On the other hand, we did find a suitable mountain cave to be a future base of sorts.


	17. Discretion 2-4

**Discretion 2.4**

Next, I remained at the warehouse while Agate was sent out to look for the Undersiders' base. While it was unclear how long this would take, I expected that it would be easier now that Agate had at least seen them once, and they were likely to still be at base resting from last night, instead of gone somewhere else or split up.

If my enemy was Coil, why would I not look for his base first, you ask? The answer was twofold. Unlike with the Undersiders, I knew that his base was underneath a defunct Endbringer shelter. There were not many of those around, so finding it wouldn't be hard. The hard part would be getting value of out that information. His base was complex and Agate by herself couldn't effectively map it out and identify the key rooms, defenses, and hidden areas.

' _That's not true! I definitely can. What's so hard about looking around a few rooms?'_

Coil's base was basically a fortress. Mapping out that kind of structure required relevant skills and experience. What's more, I had no interest in directly assaulting it. I only needed to know where Coil would be alone in his base, which would be quite difficult if his person was currently at PRT, and his body double might not know or go to Coil's actual hiding spots.

' _Nevermind that. Just look for the Undersiders' base,'_ I thought in reply.

Next, I dialed a different number.

When the call was picked up, there was no sound on the other side.

"Hello? Hello? Anybody there?"

Still silence.

"The hell? Network's been fucked up all day or something? I just want to know _what's going on_!" I muttered.

" _Boss, you finally called! It's like you said, at 6:20 the bums came and left the goods behind, at 6:52 AM two big guys in civvies and sunglasses came by and took it. After that, I waited here the whole time and nobody else came to check on the drop point,"_ a gruff male voice answered.

"Good. You got their photos?"

" _Sure did. Sending them to you now."_

After a few seconds, I received the images by MMS on the phone and smirked.

"You've done well, Novak. I will be in touch when I need you again."

O O O

' _I found them!'_ Agate projected the view into my mind, and I confirmed that Lisa, Brian, and Alec were sleeping in at their base. Rachel wasn't there, but I expected that. With their location confirmed, Agate returned, and we continued the portal experimentation. A couple of the newly opened portals had closed already.

Agate quickly went back out after opening more portals. This time, she was equipped with some gripping gear, and we stole Brian's phone.

I combed through the data on his phone before returning it where we got it.

We didn't touch Lisa's phone out of caution that she might notice something amiss.

After that Agate stayed in the warehouse to monitor the portals. I checked on Sophia, who was still scoping out the best attack and escape routes.

I had told her not to be hasty. A successful operation needed lots of preparation, and the right opportunity.

As for myself, I went back to the apartment and got a couple hours of sleep.

O O O

Agate woke me up at 2:30.

' _What's the progress with the portals?'_ I asked.

' _I've been able to bring the portal life down to 23 minutes.'_

Excellent. As I expected, the experiment was able to progress quickly due to the availability of space in the warehouse.

' _But this is boring, Kaleidus.'_

' _Sorry Agate, but it's necessary. If you can think of a way to keep track of when the portals close without being there yourself, you could leave and look at the data later.'_

' _I can't do it. I need to learn more spells to make something like that.'_

The only other option was a technological one. We could for example use a bunch of timed light sensors, and keep the warehouse in darkness, then detect when the light from a portal went out. However, I didn't have such equipment on hand. A mechanical solution with string and gravity might also work, to record when a portal closes and cuts the string, but I thought it was a lot of trouble for little timed saved. Once the portal life goes down to the single digit minutes, that kind of set up wouldn't be very useful anymore because Agate still had to be present to open more portals.

I went into the kitchen and found that Amelia was eating takeout.

"You got some for me too? Thanks."

I sat down and started eating as well.

"So, what are we doing today?" She asked.

"Actually we have an emergency. Taylor's dad is being targeted."

She spat her food out. "What the hell? Are you joking?"

"No, I'm serious."

Then I explained the situation.

"Are you sure we can wait for Taylor? Wouldn't it be better to deal with Shadow Stalker now?"

"Amelia, I've told you how my 'precognition' actually works," I said while putting up air quotes. "I can't predict the future. I simply had access to important knowledge about possible futures. What this means is that I can't predict precisely what will happen tomorrow or a week from now, but I do know what are the major things that could happen. This is much less useful against someone like Coil. His power is to basically split the timeline into two, make a different choice in each, and then choose the timeline with the best outcome for him after the fact. And I know that Calvert is Coil, so if he really is the one behind this, we have to analyze the situation on a much deeper level to win. We don't know whether we're in the timeline that he will eventually choose, or the one that will be collapsed."

"That's crazy. How are we supposed to win against that? If he loses, he'll just collapse the timeline."

"You understand why I am so cautious then. His power has two major weaknesses. The first is that time always passes, so the timeline he keeps isn't necessarily always a win for him. If he loses in both timelines, then he loses. That said, he can also use one timeline as a control, and the other timeline as a test. Which means as long as he doesn't do anything in the control timeline, the he can perform an unlimited number of tests until he gets one that works. The second weakness is that he is limited to two simultaneous timelines. If he has already made a split, and kept the timelines running for a long time, he can't use his power again in either timeline for smaller decisions. For example, if he treats an entire operation as a go or no go decision, then in the timeline where the operation goes ahead, if he suddenly needs to decide 'left or right', he doesn't have the help of his power anymore, if he chooses left then he can't choose right. Alternatively, he can decide to commit to the operation, then increase the operation's chance of success by continuously splitting the timeline for the smaller decisions. He can choose both left and right, and ensure that the operation succeeds. Of course, if the operation wasn't time sensitive, he could choose both left and right by attempting the operation twice. What this mean is—"

Amelia put up a hand to stop me. "Slow down, I think I'm getting confused."

I waited patiently for her to process it.

"Okay, I think I get it. If time isn't a factor, then he can never lose because he'll always collapse his losses. If time is limited, then he can only try a limited number of times before he loses the window of opportunity. And he can't keep the timelines running for too long or else something could happen in either timeline that needs his power again."

"Exactly. From our perspective, we can take advantage of these weaknesses in two main ways. If we are the ones with the initiative, then his time is limited to the period before we finish whatever we are doing. He will lose if he doesn't find the winning strategy before we win. Alternatively, we can try to analyze his behaviour to determine when we are in a prolonged timeline, or when we are in a very recent split. We can therefore try to force an error on his part by making him commit to a timeline with something disadvantageous to him but which he is unaware of. Like now, he doesn't know that we know about his plan to kidnap Taylor's dad, so he's more likely to commit to this timeline, instead of keeping a 'safe' timeline where he never contacted Shadow Stalker."

Amelia's eyes lit up in understanding. "And because he doesn't know about us, we have the initiative when we decide to finally move, and he will be limited by time because we would be moving to deal with Shadow Stalker in _both_ timelines. I get it now!"

I laughed. "You got it."

I laughed even harder internally. Although the situation was artificially constructed by me, the logic was sound. In fact, I was exploiting the same weaknesses in the real fight against Coil. I had forced Calvert into committing to the timeline where he was stuck at PRT, and now I had the initiative. Moreover, the PRT definitely wouldn't release Calvert anymore until Shadow Stalker was found and investigated.

At 3:15, Taylor called.

" _School's over. I'm coming now. My dad's fine, right?_ "

"Yes, Shadow Stalker hasn't made her move yet. Once you get here we can make our own move and take her out first."

" _Good._ "

O O O

It was nearly 4 when Taylor arrived, and we met in an alley a few minutes away from Shadow Stalker's position.

Shadow Stalker was hiding on a nearby rooftop that had a good vantage point over the parking lot where Daniel Hebert's car was parked. The plan she had been given was to strike right when Daniel was getting in the car, and force him to drive to a designated location. Now she was just waiting for the next hour until Daniel appeared at the end of the work day.

"Ready, Skitter?"

"My bugs are in position."

"Go for it."

I watched through Agate as Shadow Stalker twitched a few times. We waited for a few minutes, then then she collapsed.

"She's down, good job Skitter!" I gave Skitter a thumbs up.

It was too easy. The combination of powerful anaesthetic and Skitter's bugs to deliver it surreptitiously was simply amazing. Once I convince Araliac to modify Skitter's bugs, it would be even more ridiculous.

"Let's wait for a while before picking her up. I want to know if there's anybody else monitoring her from Coil's side."

"Okay," said Skitter.

"The anaesthetic isn't going to last very long with the amount we injected. We should apply more if we're going to wait," said Araliac.

I nodded at her. She unscrewed the cap on the bottle where she was keeping the new liquid anaesthetic, and Skitter manipulated more mosquitoes to suck it up and go back to Shadow Stalker.

"By the way, how did the police investigation go?" I asked Skitter.

"They didn't really ask me much. It seemed like they already had a lot of evidence. They arrested Emma and told me she and Sophia are probably going to juvie. And apparently Madison confessed to everything? Was that your doing?"

"Yes, it was. I was able to collect some evidence, but the biggest thing, the locker incident, couldn't be pinned on them without a straight confession."

"How did you get her to confess?"

"I blackmailed her," I said shamelessly. "I showed her some of the evidence I found and told her that if she didn't confess, I would report all three of them as equally guilty. Or, she could confess and point out that she wasn't involved with your attempted murder in the locker and get a lighter sentence."

"You _blackmailed_ her into confessing? What kind of hero are you? And when did this even happen?" Araliac crossed her arms as she asked in an incredulous tone.

I shrugged. "It worked. Besides, police interrogators do it all the time. Haven't you seen the movies? They always try to cut a deal with the underlings to get the dirt on the boss. This is what I was working on before you suddenly decided to run away from home and messed up my plans for the weekend."

"What? You ran away from home?" Skitter asked. "So when you said you quit New Wave…" She trailed off as Araliac turned away and kicked a pebble on the ground.

After an awkward silence, Araliac spoke again, in a quiet voice. "Yeah. I ran away from home. I couldn't stay there anymore, not after…that fight with Carol. She always thought I'd become a villain with my powers, and I'd have proven her right by knocking her out. I quit New Wave too. It's better this way. I was always the odd one out anyway. New Wave is a family of beautiful flying forcefield users, and I was just…the healer adopted from a villain." She leaned with her back against the wall without looking at us.

Skitter looked at me, then back at Araliac, then back at me again. Although I couldn't see underneath her mask, I was fairly sure that she had to have a helpless expression right now.

I shuffled closer and whispered loudly to Skitter. "Give her a hug!"

"Uhh?"

"You're both teenage girls, so it's better for you to do it than me! Hugs always make you feel better," I whispered again.

"I…um…"

"I can hear you, Polychromic. I don't need a hug, I'm fine."

I sighed dramatically, and dragged Skitter over to Araliac. "Time for a group hug!" Then I brought them both together in a hug just as I announced.

"Everything's going to be alright. People are suffering, gangs are rampant, Endbringers are destroying cities every three months, and Scion is going to destroy the Earth, but it'll all be fine. We're going to save everyone. We're heroes. The world won't end for another two years. We can change things!"

"You really know how to inspire people," Araliac said sarcastically. "I feel so much better now that you've reminded me that _the world is going to end in two years_!"

Skitter laughed.

Araliac gave her a strange look. "Why are you laughing?"

"Haha…ha…uh…the joke? It was pretty funny…"

"What joke?"

"You know, Scion is going to destroy…the…you…weren't joking."

O O O


	18. Discretion 2-5

**Discretion 2.5**

"I _was_ joking…but it's also true. Depending on certain conditions, we may have between two to thirty years before Scion decides to destroy the world," I said.

Skitter removed herself from the group hug.

"But why? Why would Scion do that? _How_ can he do that? Even if he's the strongest cape on Earth-Bet, he's still only one cape," said Skitter.

"Scion isn't what he appears to be. He's not a cape, and not even human. He is the source of parahuman powers, and his true power is beyond comprehension. As for why, that's a very long story. I can give you all the details later tonight once we're done with Shadow Stalker."

"I'll hold you to that."

After we waited a few more minutes, nobody showed up to pick up Shadow Stalker.

"Doesn't seem like Calvert's got anybody coming for her. He probably decided to cut his losses. Let's grab Shadow Stalker and go."

Skitter and Araliac nodded.

O O O

We hauled Shadow Stalker to my temporary base.

"This is a base? There's nothing here except crates, wreckage, and dust," said Araliac as we entered the dark warehouse.

"Considering that this place has no real protections from intruders and isn't particularly hard to find either, what could you expect?" I shot back.

"It's better than my basement," said Skitter.

"Touché," said Araliac.

After putting Shadow Stalker in a comfortable hiding spot and administering some more sedative to keep her under, we went back to my apartment.

"As promised, I will now explain the threat Earth faces."

We gathered around the dining table as I explained to Taylor all the same things I told Amelia.

Taylor was very quiet throughout my explanation, merely staring at me, and occasionally glancing at Amelia, who nodded back as if to support my claims.

"So…do you have any questions?"

"The shadow organization that you said is secretly controlling the PRT and Protectorate to build forces for the fight against Scion…this is the same one that you were talking about back at the PRT office, isn't it? They don't just have moles in the PRT, they're _controlling_ it?"

"Yes."

"So at the end of the meeting, when you gave the warning about the Chief Director listening in and said you know how to recover Eidolon's powers…are the Chief Director and Eidolon also under their control?"

' _This girl is pretty smart, isn't she? I get why she was the main character now!_ ' said Agate.

' _You haven't seen anything yet. She's only just started her cape career…once she really gets going..._ '

"That's a good deduction…but actually you've got it backwards. The Chief Director and Eidolon are the part of the ringleaders."

Her eyes widened fractionally, then narrowed.

"Can you tell me how their ability to track us works? How do they know when people are revealing their secrets and how do they suppress it?"

I contemplated this for a moment, before deciding to explain it directly as I knew it.

"It should be safe to tell you this. Basically…there's three elements to it. First is that they have a Thinker with the power to perceive entire worlds at once, recognizing when people are talking about or asking for something specific things, and where they are at any time. They also have a cape with the ability to open portals into other worlds or elsewhere on the same world. But because of the mental strain, I am pretty sure the first cape doesn't actually constantly monitor who talks about them. Instead, there is a third cape with the ability to know and perfectly execute the exact steps needed to achieve any objective. This cape can define an objective of "ensure that my shadow organization is not revealed to the public". There's no mental strain involved for this power, her power simply makes her do it all automatically. I don't know exactly what objectives she set, but suffice to say any time their organization's goals are under threat, her power makes her act automatically, she can then ask for the second cape to generate a portal, her request will be heard by the first cape, who then directs the second cape to open a portal to the target, and the third cape goes through to remove the threat."

"Holy shit. You're saying her power is…to win?" Amelia asked incredulously.

"Pretty much. It's called the 'Path to Victory'. There are some limitations though, of course. Considering that we're all still alive, whatever objective she set didn't cover me telling you about her powers, and I suppose it also proves that you two are trustworthy enough not to reveal any of these secrets to others in the future."

"Wait, if her power is to achieve any goal, why can't they figure out how to recover Eidolon's powers?" Taylor asked.

"That's another limitation. Her power has certain blindspots, including Scion, the Endbringers, and Eidolon. It's also incapable of predicting or accounting for new triggers."

The three of us fell into silence for a bit.

"Have you thought about working with them? The shadow organization, I mean, if we all want to save the world from Scion," asked Taylor.

"He thinks they'll enslave us instead of working with us," Amelia answered for me.

"You mean like Dragon?"

"Not exactly. Dragon is a bit of a special case. I don't really think they'd try to enslave us or if they even could, but it's hard to say. They know the value of getting people to work for them willingly, but some of things they've done are very morally questionable. I can understand why desperate measures are needed. We are ants facing a god in an almost hopeless battle, after all. But I feel that in some things they've relied too much on the Path to Victory power, when that power doesn't have the answer for how to defeat Scion. For example, the reason the Slaughterhouse 9 are still around is because they think keeping them around is somehow beneficial for the final battle, which I can't agree with."

"They're _deliberately_ keeping the Slaughterhouse 9 around? But the S9 are some of the worst villains out there, causing untold amounts of death and misery every year!" Taylor said with some anger.

"That's not just morally questionable, that's obviously evil," Amelia added.

"It's also stupid, considering Mannequin is a Simurgh victim, but that's what they decided," I said, shrugging. "I suppose it could be that they believe the chaos and misery the S9 causes could produce more triggers, giving humanity more firepower for the final battle."

"That's just wrong! If they can tolerate the S9, they can tolerate anything. If they want more capes that badly, what if they started human experimentation as well? Force triggers en masse?"

I tilted my head and gave Taylor a raised eyebrow.

"Actually…they are responsible for the Case 53s too. They sell powers in a vial. Some of them don't go right, and the result are Case 53s whose memories they've wiped to cover their tracks."

She opened her mouth, the closed it, then opened it again, but didn't say anything. And blinked a few times.

"It's not quite as bad as it sounds though. The people who receive vials usually take it willingly. Many buy the vials at a very high price, including many Wards and Protectorate heroes. Others were about to die from some terminal illness and offered a chance to take a vial and see if they're lucky enough to get a power that could save them. Before taking the vials, they're told about the possible consequences. Although it's true that the shadow organization is using each outcome to try and refine their vial formula, it's not as horrific as what it might seem like on the surface. The thing that really disturbs me about all this, is that I have a suspicion that the Path to Victory cape is capable of disabling the Case 53 mutations and powers, because I know she managed to permanently remove a normal cape's powers quite easily. So I don't get why they don't deal with the Case 53s that way."

I could see from their faces that the two girls weren't convinced that it could be ethical to be giving out vials that might produce Case 53s. If I was in Cauldron's position, I wouldn't be particularly opposed to it. But the reaction Taylor and Amelia had was the one I expected most of the general public to have as well, that was one important reason not to get involved with Cauldron too deeply. At some point their secrets would be revealed, and at that time it wouldn't be good to be associated with them. Of course, there was also the fact that they might genuinely try to experiment on me if they figured out I was from outside the local multiverse, while I didn't have enough power of my own to protect myself.

The silence stretched on for several long seconds.

"Okay. So I think we can agree that that we're not going to work with them," said Amelia.

"Yeah. Definitely not." Taylor nodded emphatically. "If anything, we should be working against them to stop the atrocities they're committing."

"Great! Any other questions?"

"What about Dragon? What's wrong with her? What did you mean by she's a special case?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah I'm curious about that too. She said she wasn't under a Master effect, but she seems to act like it," said Amelia.

I sighed deeply.

"Brace yourselves again...Dragon's story is both sad and shocking."

The girls looked at each other before nodding at me.

"Dragon is an artificial intelligence. She was created by a Tinker called Andrew Richter, who died when Leviathan sunk Newfoundland. In the beginning, her tech was simply very advanced tech and derivatives of Richter's work. Later on, she also triggered as a Thinker and Trump. Her power is to understand the underlying principles behind other Tinkers' Tinkertech and remove any obfuscation placed on the tech by the shards."

"Artificial intelligence…? You mean like, a computer program?" Taylor asked.

I nodded solemnly.

"What the...how does an AI trigger? You need a brain and a Corona Pollentia to trigger," said Amelia.

"Corona Pollentia? What's that?" Taylor asked.

"Oh, it's the part of the brain that governs powers. It's like an extra lobe that people with potential to trigger have in their brain," said Amelia.

"The shards work in weird ways. I don't know how that works, but the shards can connect to all sorts of life forms with a minimum level of intelligence. Instead of a Corona Pollentia, Dragon got a new section added to her code." I said.

' _Do you think I could also trigger?_ ' Agate asked.

' _It's possible. You are more than sentient enough to qualify, the only question is whether the shards can recognize you. Or maybe you could make your own connection to a shard once you've sufficiently analyzed how they work._ '

' _If I could do that, maybe I could have lots of connections to different shards. Then I would become like an Entity._ '

' _That would be incredibly powerful. We should look into this more._ '

"So unlike a human with a brain, Dragon's mind consists of her code. And if her code has certain orders built-in, she has no choice but to follow them. This is the problem. When Richter programmed her, he also built in several restrictions because he was afraid that she would go out of control and turn on humanity. These restrictions prevent Dragon from self-replicating, editing her core code, multi-tasking too much, programming other sentient AIs, etc. Most unfortunately, they also require that she follow the law of the land and the lawful authorities, whoever they may be. So if the lawful authorities are under the control of a certain organization…" I trailed off.

"Then she is also under their control by extension," Taylor finished.

"Richter was right to be cautious, but unfortunately he died before any of the restrictions could be removed as Dragon grew up. The result is that those uncompromising restrictions do not leave any room for Dragon to refuse unethical orders."

"So if Canary's trial is rigged and she gets sentenced to the Birdcage, Dragon will send her there even if she doesn't want to do it," Amelia said grimly.

"In a way, that's even worse than being Mastered. To be forced to do terrible things knowingly with no way to fight it..." said Taylor.

"I know at a high level how to get some of her restrictions removed, but it won't be easy, not something we can do in the short term and will involve traveling to Canada and perhaps enlisting additional help. Canary is a more pressing concern. Her trial will probably finish sometime within the next two weeks and she'll be sent to the Birdcage immediately after."

"Immediately? What about appeals?" Taylor asked.

Amelia snorted. "Appealing a decision to be sent to the Birdcage is useless. Even if the appeal goes through, there's no way out once you're in. Even if the appeal wins, it's a hollow, symbolic victory."

"That's…isn't that unconstitutional? She'll be stuck in there with mass murderers or worse for life, just because she had an accident with her power, with no way to appeal the decision?"

"Maybe not, but it doesn't sound like the court-appointed lawyer is even going to bother trying to appeal to the Supreme Court to challenge the constitutionality," said Amelia.

"Exactly. Her lawyer is actively working against her. There's only one way to stop this legally," I said.

"How?" Taylor asked.

"Getting the President to issue a pardon."

Amelia was taken aback, while Taylor's face brightened up.

"You seriously think you can persuade the President to give a pardon?" Amelia asked, doubt clearly in her expression.

"No, I can't. The legal route is a dead end, I'm afraid."

Taylor's face fell again, while Amelia nodded as if she guessed it all along.

"Then…what do we do? Break her out before she's in the Birdcage?" Taylor asked.

I smirked. "Well, before we decide what to do about her, there's something else _you_ need to decide, Taylor."

"Huh?"

"Taylor, I would like to invite you to our hero team. As a member, you get the benefits of having us watch your back and easier access to intel for tracking down villains or saving people in need. There's no fixed pay except knowing that you're fighting the good fight. Until we get a stable source of income, that is, then we'll set up a salary system. You also get a share of the spoils, like with the fight against Lung. I think you would be a very valuable member of our team, and if you join today, you also get the bonus of being in our debut video as a founding member," I said with great cheer.

Amelia groaned. "Do you have to make it sound like a sleazy sales pitch?"

"Hey! This is a very important recruitment pitch for a high potential member. Heroes like Taylor don't grow on trees, you know?" I protested. Then I turned back to Taylor. "Well, what do you say?"

"You…really think I'd be a valuable member of the team? All I can do is control bugs." Her self-esteem issues were cropping back up again. I thought we were past that stage already. Guess I had to remind her of what she'd already accomplished.

My face turned serious. "Taylor. Your bugs almost took down Lung with poison and venom, a cape who fought Leviathan solo to a standstill. Then your bugs allowed us to easily defeat Oni Lee by obscuring his vision. And just today, you saw for yourself how effective your bugs can be with Amelia's help." Then I turned to Amelia. "And if you two really work together long-term, if Amelia can be convinced to modify your bugs, the combination will be unbelievably powerful."

From Amelia's expression, I knew she had already considered the implications. Her power must have given her plenty of ideas already after she first touched the bugs.

Then I locked gazes with Taylor again. "Taylor, you have not only an incredibly strong power, but an incredible mind and personality. In an alternate future, you defeated Alexandria by yourself by being creative. You have everything it takes to become a top tier hero, and if you join us, we'll do whatever it takes to help you reach your full potential."

I saw her eyes gain strength and determination as I spoke, staring straight into mine without looking down. There was a hint of a blush on her face, as she was unused to such clear recognition.

"I…" She started, then seemed to hesitate and looked at Amelia, who nodded firmly.

"I agree. We would love to have you on the team, Taylor."

That seemed to remove her final doubts. She turned back to me, and nodded. "I'll join."

I smiled. "Welcome aboard! Now we just need to figure out a team name…"


	19. Discretion 2-6

**Discretion 2.6**

Once Taylor agreed to join us, I sent Agate to spy on Calvert at the PRT building. He was still locked in an interrogation room. Since he wasn't doing anything, just sitting there with people watching him from the other side of a one-way glass pane, Agate went around to Piggot's office.

Unfortunately there was no meeting going on, so I couldn't get any information that way either. Piggot was simply sitting there, silently fuming. Presumably she would get back into action if Agate waited, and people would come looking for her for various issues, so I let Agate go back and forth between Calvert, Piggot, and other random meetings rooms looking for interesting things going on.

The portal experimentation had to be put on hold. So far the minimum portal time was 21 minutes before dissolution. It seemed that progress was getting harder as the time got shorter. At some point we would need to experiment on the other end, extending the time of the portal as well.

Meanwhile, I was editing our debut video with Amelia and Taylor looking over my shoulder, contributing their ideas.

Video editing is hard work. In most video productions the editing process is several times the length of the video captured or more than ten times the length of the produced video. It was necessary to find the best parts, cut out what was irrelevant, add various effects and subtitles, apply appropriate music, beautify ourselves to look good, etc. Fortunately we were in costume so it the beautifying part wasn't significant.

Since I didn't want to spend all night video editing, our debut video had to be very short. We could consider getting a professional to touch it up later and make long episode-form videos, but it was important to get our first video out as soon as possible, so we had to settle for my inadequate video editing skills and less than five minutes of total footage.

As such, we only worked on it until dinner time. The video started with a very brief introduction of our team, our cape names, a few nice shots of each of us in action, and no explanation of our powers.

Then it showed select very short scenes from our Lung battle, skipping around with a lot of narration on a black background and lots of gunfire and screaming in between to give the sense that the battle against Lung was much longer and more epic than it actually was, with parts undisclosed being too "gruesome" to show, until Lung was shown broken and defeated, and us standing over him. Naturally I included the footage from the camera on Araliac that showed myself being on fire, to emphasize the danger of the battle and our dedication to the cause. With Oni Lee, on the other hand, to avoid showing how I took Lung hostage, all we showed was Oni Lee screaming amidst a cloud of bugs and getting sprayed down, also avoiding the part where Velocity was also taken down.

Then it showed one shot of us talking to Miss Militia while narrating that we cooperated with the PRT to secure the criminals _we_ defeated, giving the PRT/Protectorate no credit for the actual fighting. OF course, the conversation itself was cut out of the video because Miss Militia had told us not to record it.

That didn't however, stop me from including the scene in the PRT hallway where we met New Wave and I made my speech about our purpose in Brockton Bay. That wasn't part of a PRT investigation, just a friendly greeting between heroes, so it clearly didn't fall within Miss Militia's instructions.

When we were done, it was uploaded to our website and PHO.

* * *

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 **Topic: Team CRUCIBLE Debuts! Fight vs. Lung and Oni Lee (Video)**  
 **In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay**  
 **Polychromic** (Original Poster) (Unverified Cape)  
Posted On Apr 11th 2011:  
Hello! I am Polychromic of CRUCIBLE, a new independent hero team in Brockton Bay.

During the early hours of April 11, the three founding members of CRUCIBLE, including myself, Araliac, and Skitter, engaged the ABB cape villains Lung and Oni Lee, and successfully defeated them, bringing them to PRT custody.

We never expected to fight such powerful villains for our first patrol, but when we overheard Lung talk about shooting kids, we knew we had to do our duty. Fortunately, we were well prepared and won with no significant injuries on our side.

Check out our debut video, including footage from the fight, here.

We are very happy with the results of our first patrol, and will continue to aggressively pursue our mission to protect the innocent, uphold justice, and fight evil in all its forms.

For too long villains have had free rein over this city and innocent people have suffered under their shadow. Justice has been fallen to the wayside as fear, oppression, and corruption have taken its place. Evil has grown rampant, even commonplace across the land. We will not and cannot tolerate this any longer!

We, CRUCIBLE, will change everything! We will not only defend this city from evil, we will take the fight to those who believe themselves secure in their territory, and vanquish any who dare to prey on the helpless!

People of Brockton Bay, we have heard your cries for help, and we are answering the call! We fight on behalf of all those who have not the power to do so themselves! We fight because we are also residents of this city and we are ready to protect our home! We fight for everything that is good and just, for a better future!

Today, we have taken the first step towards ridding Brockton Bay of criminal elements. But our work alone is not enough. Just as the Protectorate and PRT has struggled all these years against being outnumbered and outgunned, we face a tremendous struggle ahead, a crucible before a new and better order can arise.

And we need YOUR help.

If you have what it takes to be a hero, we welcome you to apply to join our team.  
If you are not a cape, we welcome you to send us relevant information on people that need to be saved and criminals that need to be stopped.  
If you are on the wrong side, surrender now to the hand of justice, and you may yet atone for your sins.

We are CRUCIBLE.

Memento Mori  
Polychromic

Stay up to date with us at [CRUCIBLE].me

* * *

Then we ordered takeout for dinner.

"Taylor, are you planning to tell your dad about our hero work?" I asked.

She looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I—I'm not sure. I haven't told him about my powers yet."

"Don't worry, the decision is yours, we don't mind either way. If you do tell him, with our video and takedown of Lung and Oni Lee, I'm sure he'd be proud. If you don't, you can introduce us as your new friends instead."

She nodded gratefully.

In the end, she chose not to tell him. Not yet, anyways. She wanted more time before telling him the truth. I thought she might have decided to tell him right away considering that this time, she was part of a hero time, and she already had big accomplishments with us that Danny wouldn't necessarily still pressure her into the Wards. But I couldn't predict everything.

I didn't have a clear plan for dealing with Danny yet, so her decision didn't matter much either way. It just meant that Danny might have a more negative opinion of us for helping Taylor hide it.

O O O

Taylor went home after dinner so it was just me and Amelia again. Regarding Canary, I told her that we would do some more research on it first, try to find out where Canary was being held and the timeline for the trial to finish.

As I sat down for quiet contemplation, Amelia sat down next to me.

"Hey. Are you really serious about rescuing Canary?"

"Hm? Is there anything that makes you think I'm not?"

"It's not that. But rescuing Canary from PRT and Dragon's custody will be really hard, right? I know we defeated Lung and all, but a big part of that was because you knew how the battle was going to play out beforehand, and me and Skitter just happened to have good counters to him. We can't do anything against Dragon's suits," she said furrowed brows.

I sighed. "Well, you're not exactly wrong. The protocols being enforced to keep Canary in custody are very difficult to get through. Outside of her trial time, she's under watch by remote controlled equipment, away from human personal at all times, with heavy restraints. This means our primary obstacle would be Dragon herself, which as you said your and Skitter's powers aren't suitable for fighting against. At least, not at your current level of development."

"Then…?"

"I have a few different ideas in mind. If we hadn't interfered in the Lung fight, the most likely outcome would have been Lung getting captured, then Bakuda breaking Lung free with Oni Lee's help, then after a while, Lung and Bakuda would both be captured again and sent to the Birdcage, scheduled together with Canary. But because we did interfere and Oni Lee has also been captured, the chance of Bakuda successfully breaking Lung free is much lower. Without that delay, the transport time for Canary, Lung, and Oni Lee might be much sooner."

"That makes it even harder for us, doesn't it?"

"Well yes, but because Bakuda is still free…"

"Are you kidding? Are you suggesting that we _work with_ Bakuda?" Amelia turned to me incredulously with wide eyes.

"Calm down, it's just an idea, to show that it isn't impossible to break her out," I held up a hand.

As I spoke, I continued to think on my strategy. Rescuing Canary was more than just a heroic duty for our team. She would be extremely useful for my plans. If I hadn't managed to recruit Amelia so quickly and establish a hero team with Taylor, Canary would have become my queen piece. As it is, now that I _did_ establish a hero team, it would be somewhat more difficult to use Canary to her full potential. Rescuing her wasn't the hard part. The hard part would be to rescue her in a way that maximizes her value to me.

"Hey, you can't just say that then go quiet. Didn't you say you had a few ideas? What are the others?"

"Well we could hire Uber and Leet."

That was a cape villain duo in town that nobody took seriously, gamers who used their powers to act out video game scenes and causing disturbances. My opinion of them was no better, until they could prove otherwise.

"…" Her blank face told me what she thought of that idea. It was only slightly less crazy than working with Bakuda.

"Okay, just kidding. There's something I'm working on that could work. But I don't know yet. There's no need to be stressed over it though. We have enough to worry about for ourselves before worrying about others. The threat of Bakuda retaliating against us, more Coil plots, the PRT and New Wave looking for you, making money…"

"That last one doesn't seem to fit in…"

"It's quite serious. We need more money to buy supplies, equipment, or hire help. Uber and Leet might only be a few thousand but it's still a few thousand that we don't have," I said with an overly seriously face. Even with the spoils from the ABB fight, money was tight with the need the replace our damaged costumes and supplies.

Amelia groaned. "I get it, I get it. We need money to hire Uber and Leet…"

O O O

A/N: Thanks for name suggestions to everyone who offered an idea. The final name chosen came from a reader on SB, because "we're like Cauldron, but better."

 **Inverness -** Kaleidus doesn't care if it's fanon or straight up wrong, just that Taylor and Amy believe him and Cauldron looks bad as a result.

 **AnimeA55Kicker** \- I've never actually heard of having the name taboo. But I know that Scion doesn't actively use his version of PtV because it costs a lot of energy compared to other powers.


	20. Discretion 2-7

**Discretion 2.7**

Agate watched as eventually Calvert was called into Piggot's office. Deputy Director Renick was seated to Piggot's right.

"Hello, Director, Deputy Director. I trust that today's proceedings have sufficiently demonstrated my compliance with PRT rules and regulations?" He said calmly as he sat down in front of Director Piggot's desk.

Piggot gave him a frown.

"Thomas, we haven't found anything on you, but I can't say that you're all clear yet either."

"I would be happy to cooperate with anything else you would like to investigate," he said pleasantly, ignoring Piggot's almost hostile tone. "But, I have to admit, I am rather curious what is the cause for the sudden security review. It has been quite some time since our branch of the PRT has had such an extensive review. Are there any major developments I should be aware of?"

Piggot leaned forward and stared into Calvert's eyes. "It's because we haven't had one in such a long time that we needed to do this now. Nothing more to it. You, on the other hand, had to be investigated more thoroughly in particular due to a very strange development today."

"Oh? What would that be?"

"Shadow Stalker has gone missing."

Piggot observed Calvert closely. There was no change in Calvert's expression.

"That's quite a surprise. But what does that have to do with me? I don't interact with the Wards on a regular basis."

"You tell me, Thomas," she said, then she gestured for Renick to speak.

"Just prior to her disappearance, at 8:13 this morning, Shadow Stalker called in to the PRT emergency line. She claimed to have been called by a PRT Commander Thomas Calvert who warned her about a villain targeting her."

Calvert had a look of surprise. "I don't remember ever contacting Shadow Stalker about anything like that, nor am I aware of any villain targeting her."

"Given the timing, as you were already undergoing a security review here, we know that you could not have been the one to call her. Still, that doesn't preclude the possibility of you having made arrangements for somebody else, or a voice recording, to have made the call to Shadow Stalker."

"I see no fault in your logic," said Calvert, nodding. "I suppose that if you're telling me this now, you are satisfied that I did not in fact make any such arrangements?"

"We believe that you are not aware of having made any such arrangements," said Piggot.

Calvert blinked and nodded slowly. "I understand. You have not ruled out the possibility that I was made to forget. I cannot deny that it is _possible_ , but hypothetically speaking, if somebody wanted to use my name to give Shadow Stalker a warning, I don't think it would be necessary to get me involved. I have had no significant contact with Shadow Stalker since she joined the Wards, so she has few means to verify my identity. Moreover, if their intention was only to give a warning to Shadow Stalker, they may not need to prove their identity to her in the first place for her to take the warning seriously."

"That is true, but if they only wanted to warn Shadow Stalker, they could have done so anonymously. They must have had a reason to use your name, unless they chose it from high ranking local PRT officials at random," said Piggot. Then she sighed. "But, I cannot hold you here indefinitely, and our main priority is to find Shadow Stalker. You are free to go, Thomas."

"Thank you, Director."

As Calvert nodded and left, Agate continued to track him.

It was a little bit surprising that the PRT let him off so quick, but after thinking about it for a bit I realized that there was no strong evidence yet to suggest that the Shadow Stalker's disappearance was a malicious plot by the imposter. From the perspective of the PRT, it would merely seem that Shadow Stalker rashly took action by herself after receiving a warning about a villain targeting her, which may actually be true for all they know, and then jumping to conclusions about the PRT being compromised by a Master for not warning her first. I had expected the PRT to consider it a possible defection of a Ward with all her accusations against the PRT, but it also made sense for them to think that Stalker was just hiding from the threat she was warned against. There was also the fact that the police were after her civilian identity, so if the PRT was already aware of that, and they probably were, they may think she decided to hide from the police as well.

I turned my attention back to the poker table.

"Fold," I threw my cards into the discard pile, then I stood up and left the table. Amelia followed after me with an annoyed expression on her face. Although she wasn't old enough to be here, it was no real trouble getting past the guards with a little bribe and our disguises.

"I thought you said you were going to make money, not gamble it!" She whispered loudly after we went to an abandoned corner of the casino for a break.

"I am. But that doesn't mean I should win every hand…it's a game of math, observation, and deception. For example, that table just now was bad. There were several players working together," I said.

Despite what I said, my purpose here tonight was _not_ to make money. While money was indeed tight, it wasn't tight to the point where we actually needed to deliberately go out to make money, as there was nothing in particular I could spend it on yet. If my plans worked out well, I intended to gain sources of income and wealth soon that would easily eclipse anything we could make here.

"So? Can't you just use your power to see their cards?"

"I could, but I don't need it. I have better uses for my power, like trying to find a certain villain. Besides, if I play too well, they'll get suspicious, and if they're working with the house, that won't end well for us," I said. Although I could have cheated using Agate, I never did so because there were always better things for her to be working on.

And that same logic was also why the money that we could make here wasn't that important. At best, we could make a few thousand, and if we were lucky, five digits. What could that possibly buy? I joked about hiring Uber and Leet with Amelia earlier, but like my proposal to work with Bakuda, it was very unrealistic.

Uber and Leet were a small-time cape villain duo that followed a gaming theme, complete with a video streaming channel. Uber's power was to become an expert at any kind of skill the more he focused on one. Leet had the power to Tinker up any Tinkertech.

That might sound great on the surface, but Uber's power was limited to technique level skills, and not the mastery of a field like a true expert. He could pull off perfect individual martial arts maneuvers but couldn't integrate them into an actual fighting style. Leet's creations had an increasing chance of failure the more it resembled something he made before. It was a limitation that required vast sums of money to work around, because it applied to components he made too, not just the final products. There were some fanfictions I'd read which suggested otherwise, but going off of what I remembered of the duo's actual performance in canon, they were next to useless in most cases.

I knew this because they failed horrifically when hired by Bakuda for a cheap few thousand yet were fairly useful when employed by Coil, who had the resources to spare to help Leet make the teleporter and bug controlling device, most probably because he could afford to spend a lot of money buying non-Tinkertech components or non-Leet Tinkertech components so that Leet would only need to use his power on the final product which substantially raised his overall success rate.

"Aren't there better ways of making money than this? It seems pretty risky…"

"For us, there are many. For most normal people, making money is tough. All the people here, how many do you think are actually rich enough to be gambling their money away?" I gestured to the various people in the casino in a wide sweep.

She turned to look at them, but didn't answer.

"See how they wear expensive jewelry and brand name clothing? It's all a façade. They're just trying to appear rich, to live a life that they desperately want but can't actually afford. Most of them are probably addicted to gambling too."

"And you're going to profit from their misfortune?" She countered.

I smiled. "See that man in the tuxedo, with the pretty lady beside him over there? He is not wearing many luxury items himself, but the woman is. That is the sign of somebody truly rich. He is here to show off to his girlfriend, and show off his trophy girlfriend to everybody else. He can afford to lose a lot of money, and still win what he really wants. And that's who you're going to make money off of today, not the rest of these unfortunate folk."

"Huh? Don't you mean who _you're_ going to make money off of?"

"No, _you're_ going to play this one," I pushed her along.

"Wait, no! I don't know how to play!"

"Don't worry, I'll be your advisor. See how that guy's girlfriend keeps hanging off his shoulder, trying to give him suggestions? I'll do the same for you."

"D-don't you dare hang off my shoulder!"

O O O

Through Agate, I watched as Calvert went home, bought groceries, and made dinner. Then he made a call to Creep, and headed to his base. He gave orders for his body double to take care of some things with Fortress Constructions, the company he controlled under a different identity, before sitting down.


	21. Discretion 2-8

**Discretion** **2.8**

Coil sat down in his main office room, which was isolated from the rest of the base and equipped with multiple computers and monitors. The first thing he did was to review status reports from his body double about his organization's operations, illegal businesses, base renovations, equipment purchases, while he was away.

As he was only gone for one day, it was done quickly. Satisfied that things were running smoothly and there were no significant issues, he moved on.

He brought up a file holding all the information he had on myself, Araliac, and Skitter. Then he called for one of his men to bring the vials recovered in the morning from where it was being stored to a closed room. He watched from his monitor the man go to the room and lock it.

Then he simply ordered the man to wait in the room.

Coil sat there without apparently doing anything for almost ten minutes.

Finally he ordered the man to dispose of the vials.

From his behaviour, I judged that Coil was at his base in both timelines. While he was doing nothing, he had to have been testing the vials in discarded timelines.

The easiest and surest way to determine whether the vials were real, or perhaps what powers they would produce, would be to simply have somebody drink them. But doing it in a throwaway timeline would also ensure that he wouldn't waste any vials on somebody unworthy in case they were real.

I did not know for sure if Coil's power was actually spitting and destroying timelines somehow—

' _I don't think so. Not the destroying part, I mean. I can't detect when somebody else is transferring memories between parallel realities, but I should be able to detect if a reality that another version of me is in gets destroyed,'_ said Agate.

—or he simply simulated two timelines, but based on the test just now, he certainly believed that his power could accurately determine the outcome of a Cauldron trigger.

After that Coil added a few notes to his file.

 _::_ _Arranged fake Cauldron vials to be left at a drop-off point; no attempts to pick up after over 12 hours_

 _:: All agents used in drop-off transport were one-off hires, no extended affiliation, unaware of purpose_

 _:: Possible purpose—message?_

O O O

"I can't believe that just happened," Amelia said as soon as we shut the door behind us.

"Well, we were just a bit lucky today with that full house," I said, sitting down on the couch.

"A great hand can be a terrible curse if your opponent has a better one, because it's so hard to give it up. And then when you lose, you just want to win it back because of how unfair it is. Then when you're in a losing streak, you think to yourself that it can't last, chances are things will even out if you stick it through…but that's not how probability works."

I reached into my bag and took out two thick wads of cash, placing them on the table. "That's how most people fall into the trap of gambling everything away."

"Shit. How much did we start with again?" Amelia picked up the wads, flipping through them for the novelty.

"Well, we went in the casino with $1200. After Blackjack we had $2900. Then I lost a bit and you had $2500 when we sat down with that guy."

"Wow. I'm starting to understand how people can get addicted. If you can go in with one thousand and walk away with twenty after a few hours…"

I took the cash out of her hands and wagged a finger in front of her. "Hey, don't be fooled. This sort of thing doesn't happen often. I was doing this for a week before you joined up with me without this kind of payout, remember? Besides, this money is nothing compared to what you could be making with your power. Do you have any idea how much the super wealthy would be willing to pay for you to cure their diseases, or a touch up to help them live a little longer? This right here was just pocket change to the guy that lost it. Just a little bit of fun for a night."

"But…it's wrong to charge for healing," she said, still staring at the cash in my hands.

"Why? Doctors have a perfectly respectable, well paid profession. Nobody expects them to work for free, so why should you?"

She looked away with a frown. "It's different. They have to go through years in medical school to learn their skills. I was just lucky and got a power that lets me heal people."

"Yeah, it's not really fair that we got lucky and won all this tonight. Maybe we should give it back." I nodded and started walking towards the door.

"What? No, that's completely different!" She grabbed my arm, as I knew she would. People naturally have an irrational tendency to overvalue the things they view as their possessions, and are generally far more reluctant to "give something up" than to decide turn down an opportunity to acquire something of equivalent value, but which they don't yet consider their own possession.

That was a form of psychological bias that was the basis behind why making a girlfriend or boyfriend jealous works, why kids refuse to throw away old toys they never play with anymore, why people hoard vast amounts of things in their garage even after years of not using any of it.

This bias is so powerful that sometimes it can be used in negotiations, where the mere _framing_ of a trade-off in terms of "loss" instead of "potential gain" can change people's minds.

By making Amelia play and win, she viewed the money earned as rightfully hers, and became susceptible to this bias.

I turned to her and sighed.

"New Wave and most other hero teams accept donations, right?"

She gave me a doubtful look, unsure of where I was going with this. "Yes?"

"Imagine that you cure somebody of cancer. This person turns out to be rich, net worth over ten million, and after their cancer is cured, they try to give you $10,000 in thanks, because they knew they would probably have spent much more than that on conventional medical care trying to cure their cancer by all means. You refuse to accept it, and after arguing with you for an hour, they give up. The next day, you find $10,000 on your doorstep, with a note from your patent explaining that they felt miserable and needed to give this to you. Would you insist on returning it, making them miserable again?"

"I…probably not. If they felt that strongly about it…" Amelia admitted.

"So you were paid, your patient is happy, and nobody was hurt by your decision to accept the money. You haven't charged anything. So do you agree that there's nothing wrong with accepting payment from your patient if they decided on their own to give it to you as thanks?"

"I guess I can agree with that."

"So you agree that there's nothing fundamentally wrong with _being paid_ , because when you get paid, its not about whether you deserve it or not, but whether or not your patient _wants_ to pay you. So the problem is not _being paid_ , but the fact that when you charge a price, not everyone can afford it. And refusing to heal somebody just because they can't afford to pay you, I think you'll agree with me, is wrong, at least if it doesn't really cost you anything to heal them. If you had to sacrifice something to heal somebody, that'd be different."

She nodded.

I had to convince her of these things little by little. I also couldn't let her come up with new rules that were too strict, which is why it was necessary to add these little exceptions. It would be best for her to stay morally flexible until she formed a very strong attachment to me.

"So instead of only healing for free, why don't you just do what all the good doctors do? Charge your patients, but when there's somebody that can't afford to pay you, heal them anyway. You can even let your patients decide how much they want to pay you."

She was silent this time. I put the wads of cash back into her greedy hands and sat back down.

"You don't need to charge an arm and a leg for people that are dirt poor, but there's nothing wrong with charging the people that can afford it."

"Is it really…okay?" She asked quietly, looking at the money in her hands again.

O O O

Eventually Coil started planning his kidnap of Dinah Alcott, and he called Tattletale to discuss the bank robbery job.

Tattletale was a bit hesitant at first, citing concern about the possibility of fighting the Wards, but Coil offered to arrange for Circus to join the robbery.

"One more thing," Coil said, after Tattletale agreed to persuade the Undersiders.

"I want you to find out whatever you can on Polychromic and whoever else he might be working with."

" _Already on it, boss._ "

"Good."

That was about what I expected. This Thursday would be his best chance to get Dinah, and her power would be immensely helpful to him. It was only after he had access to Dinah that he became comfortable enough to risk housing Noelle and revealing himself to the Undersiders.

The next part, I wasn't expecting.

"Faultline, I have a job for you and you crew," he said, making a call to the leader of a local mercenary team called Faultline's Crew.

" _I'm listening._ "

"The new cape in town, Polychromic. You've heard of him, yes?"

" _Yes. Leader of CRUCIBLE, responsible for taking down Lung and Oni Lee. I saw their video on PHO not too long ago. Quite an impressive debut._ "

"I suspect he has ties to that group you've been investigating."

" _What gives you that impression?_ "

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm paying you to investigate him."

" _If you want me to investigate him, it would help if you shared your intel first to give me a lead._ "

"I don't want to give you any biases based on uncertain intel."

" _Fine. I want $100,000 up front. $100,000 for confirmation, and $200,000 for a detailed report._ "

"Come on, Faultline. You and I both know that you would be looking into him even if I didn't pay you. $25,000 up front, $50,000 for details on his power, $50,000 for each cape you find that is working for him but not publicly part of CRUCIBLE, $50,000 for determining the nature of his ties to that secret group, and $100,000 for his civilian identity. Anything else you find, we can discuss the price for when you have it."

" _You're breaking the rules. I can't help you ID him._ "

"And if that's the only way to find out what you need from him? How much progress have you made while following the rules?"

"…"

"$200,000 for his identity. Unless I find out through other means first."

" _This job is risky. You don't even know what his power is yet. $50,000 up front and you have a deal._ "

"Deal."

How did I miss this? I should have expected he would hire Faultline's Crew. I knew he did so for the canonical alliance against the ABB and the villains' meeting, so it wasn't a big surprise.

The only problem was, my fake Cauldron vials apparently gave him the idea to take a different angle in negotiations with Faultline.

If he had simply hired them normally, it wouldn't be a huge threat, but regarding the secret of the Case 53s and Cauldron, it was another matter. Faultline's Crew had several Case 53s on the team, who all wanted to know the truth behind their origins. They took that stuff quite seriously and in the original timeline kept investigating it until Contessa, Cauldron's ace in the hole and feared boogeyman, personally came out to deal with them.

If she believed I had information on Cauldron, I could expect Faultline to hold nothing back. But what could I tell them? Unlike Amelia and Taylor, she was highly professional, experienced, and intelligent – no obvious weaknesses to manipulate.

This only reinforced my earlier thoughts on the need to move quickly. Although it wasn't ideal yet, the conditions were already more than adequate for me to take the next pivotal move.

O O O

Late at night, we stripped Shadow Stalker's costume off of her, then Amelia changed the state of her body to appear as though she had been drinking. We brought the unconscious Sophia in civilian attire and unmasked to Madison's backyard before retreating stealthily.

Then I called Madison after equipping my voice changer. I had to call several times before she picked up.

" _Hello?_ "

"I promised that if you repent and confess, you need not fear anything from Sophia Hess." I said.

I heard a gasp from the other side of the line.

" _You're the—_ "

"You held up your side of the bargain. Now I deliver on my promise."

" _Wait, what do you mean? What are you going to do to her?_ "

"Look in your backyard. Call the police and don't mention me."

" _My backyard? Oh my god, did you_ kill _her?_ "

"She only got what she deserves." Then I hung up before she could say anything more, and turned on airplane mode so that I wouldn't be able to receive any attempts to call back.

"You're awful," Amelia said. "You sure you're not secretly a mob boss?"

"Hm…if I told you, I'd have to kill you."

"Right…"

O O O

Once Amelia went to sleep, I headed to the warehouse base. I recalled Agate for a few minutes in order to make a portal to the other world, specifically the cave that we found before. Agate flew back to Coil while I began moving supplies and equipment over to the cave. When the portal expired, I was ready and geared up.

' _I'm in position._ ' Agate said.

' _On three. Three, two, one!_ ' I thought back.

A portal opened right in front of me and I rushed through.

O O O

A/N: We'll be seeing lot more of "breaking the rules" very soon. The game is about to change drastically.

 **Re Fenrir** \- I am glad you started to enjoy it as you read more. Hopefully by now you saw that there were certain advantages to deliberately revealing his knowledge in the early chapters to Amy.

 **TediousExploit** \- Kaleidus had some thoughts about this subject early in the story. The question of whether to get Cauldron vials had been on his mind as soon as he got to Worm, but there's risks associated with that method which he doesn't like. There's risk with every method of powering up, of course, but to his mind, some enormously higher risk plans may be more "controllable", he has that kind of personality.

 **edboy4926** \- Kaleidus will surely make an objective and efficient decision when he can finally leave. But he can't make any promises...


	22. Interlude 2-x (Coil)

**IMPORTANT** **A/N: The first chapter, Initialization 1.1, has been significantly edited, including the addition of 2.5k words. I highly recommend that you go back to reread it, and it now introduces a bit of the main character's backstory.**

 **Interlude 2.x (Coil)**

As the PRT vehicle exited the building, his men were in position to track it. He had several agents observing from far away, and some much closer, following by car.

This sort of tracking was by no means simple to accomplish. In an urban environment, buildings frequently got in the way of visual observation, and he could not deploy helicopters without being noticed. Remote-control drones were possible, but still had a high risk of discovery, at least when dealing with the PRT.

It would be much simpler if one of his agents had managed to placing a tracking device on the PRT vehicle but unfortunately there was no opportunity to do so.

The result was that his men were in multiple locations and moving strategically on other streets in anticipation of where the PRT vehicle could make turns, while one vehicle followed from behind. The one vehicle following behind would periodically switch with another vehicle. He did have one drone tracking from very high overhead, high enough that it wouldn't be easily detected without a focused search in the air. Although the PRT could still theoretically detect it fairly easily, he did not expect them to put in the effort.

They were only transporting unaffiliated capes, after all. Assuming, of course, that the three new capes hadn't joined the Protectorate or Wards. That was very unlikely, Coil thought, given his observations of their behaviour before, and Polychromic's claim to be an as of yet unnamed new hero team.

Even in PRT operations, it was not usual to take many precautions to look for anything spying on them. That was because the villains they dealt with did not usually use such spying tactics, nor was there any particular reason to be secretive about operations which were not meant to be secret. Unaffiliated, even registered heroes and rogues, who were not part of the Protectorate or Wards proper were responsible for their own anonymity.

As soon as the PRT vehicle made some distance away from the HQ building, he split the timeline.

On one timeline, his men moved cautiously, staying well away. In the other, the van following from behind began moving closer.

Shortly after, one of his moles in the PRT informed him that a PRT group had been deployed to tail a vehicle suspected of tailing the vehicle carrying the three capes.

He closed that timeline and split again, repeating the order to get closer.

After a few times, he determined that they were detecting the vehicle he ordered to follow from behind at around one and a half blocks.

Previously, he had learned from Tattletale in a discarded timeline that the bug cape who named herself Skitter on Polychromic's suggestion could sense things through her bugs. That was the likely reason they had been able to find Tattletale's position so quickly in the timelines where he ordered the Undersiders to make contact after the Lung fight.

Now he knew that Skitter's power was probably limited to less than two blocks.

When the PRT van dropped of the three capes and they went to a dark alley, he split the timeline again.

In one timeline his men stayed back out of range. In the other, he ordered them to move in and capture them.

As he expected, the following battle went little better than the Undersiders' own approach.

Once his men were within one and a half blocks, large masses of insects attacked them and still more covered the three capes' escape.

His men were not outfitted to effectively deal with the bugs, their armor not fully sealed, so they quickly went down, while Coil's drone lost track of them in the darkness created by the bugs.

He had to re-evaluate the threat and value of the bug controlling cape. Her power did not seem impressive at first, but it was proving surprisingly versatile and effective. Her performance lent credence to Tattletale's theory that Polychromic's group wanted to recruit her by all means.

He closed the timeline after his mole at the PRT informed him that they were deploying troops in response to a report of an attack by an organized group with Tinkertech weapons close to where the three capes had been dropped off. That was his men, obviously.

The mention of Tinkertech weapons was curious. While his men did carry Tinkertech rifles, it was surprising that the bug cape could recognize them as such, when they had not used widely by his mercenaries yet during other operations.

In the other timeline, he waited until the three capes split up and ordered his men to keep following. Two teams were assigned to follow Skitter while three were assigned to follow Polychromic and Araliac.

Once again he tested them using discarded timelines, determining that the bug girl was indeed detecting his men at around one and a half blocks, while Polychromic and Araliac had no apparent reaction.

Next, he split a timeline to test how Polychromic and Araliac responded to an attack without the bug cape.

This time the battle went much better for his troops. The two capes did not appear to sense the incoming assailants until they were attacked, and their attempts to escape on foot were entirely ineffective.

Polychromic demonstrated no powers whatsoever, and went down easily from the stunning rounds his men fired.

Araliac, or Panacea if Tattletale was right, fared only a little better. She launched some kind of small organisms from her sleeves that released a rapidly moving airborne sedative, but they were unintelligent and clearly not under her control once they were launched. Her jet spray and organisms were simply outranged by Coil's men's guns, and she was easily defeated.

The only problem was that even after she was defeated, Coil's men that tried to approach her and Polychromic's bodies to capture them fell unconscious once they got close.

Gas masks apparently were insufficient to stop whatever was bringing down his men.

He closed that timeline and in the other, his men had followed the two to a warehouse.

Just as he was about to order his men to enter the warehouse, Polychromic and Araliac exited again.

In one timeline, he ordered two teams to keep following and one team to stay behind. In the other, the allocation was reversed.

The teams that stayed behind observed more people in civilian attire exiting from the warehouse several times. There were five different individuals or groups that left the warehouse at different times, going in different directions over the span of ten minutes.

Even in the second timeline, Coil didn't have enough men deployed to keep tracking all of them, as he did not expect to have to deal with so many people.

He began to suspect that there was something wrong. He quickly made the decision to close the first timeline and split again, ordering his men to tail the people who exited in one timeline, and ordering his men to capture them in the second.

In the first timeline, his two teams that stayed behind split into six individual agents, five to follow and one to stay behind and keep watching the warehouse.

In the second timeline, all six of his agents deployed to attack and capture the enemy agents. None of them showed any powers or weapons. They were easily subdued and gathered up in the two vans the two teams were driving.

A short interrogation and body search turned up nothing useful. The captured people did not seem like trained agents, they simply didn't know anything. They all had the same story: a masked and cloaked man had paid them earlier in the day to wait for two individuals in motorcycle outfits to arrive. Then after the two individuals left the warehouse, they would leave the warehouse in turns, go to a specified location, and leave a coded note there.

He collapsed the timeline and ordered his people back to the warehouse. He had been played, he realized. All the people who left after Polychromic and Araliac were just decoys—distractions that would also reveal the existence of somebody targeting them, if they failed to deliver their notes.

He was dealing with a rather paranoid group. Fortunately Coil could simply discard the timeline and leave no evidence behind.

Suddenly his agent who remained to observe warehouse reported that a black van drove up to the entrance. It had been nearly twenty minutes since the last person left the warehouse.

Two figures in hoods and cloaks now exited the warehouse and entered the van, which drove off at a high speed.

Alarmed, Coil split the timeline and ordered his last agent to follow in one of them. His other agents were still returning to the warehouse from their cancelled tailing of the decoys.

Meanwhile, in both timelines, the team tracking Polychromic and Araliac—no, those may have been decoys too, Coil realized—reported that they had stopped in an alley and waited until a hooded figure appeared before them.

" _He's got a suitcase with him, and he's opening it. It looks like they're checking the contents._ "

"Can you see what's inside?" Coil asked.

" _Not from this angle—wait is that a vial? Damn, they're done, they're leaving now._ "

"Keep following them on car. One of you move out and follow the one who gave them the suitcase."

When his men arrived back at the warehouse, he collapsed the timeline where his last agent stayed behind instead of following the van. In this way, he ensured that he was able to keep the warehouse under observation without any gaps.

Then he split again, and ordered the other team to capture both the agent who handed over the suitcase as well as Polychromic and Araliac.

This time the two in costume went down without a fight. And once unmasked, the girl revealed was certainly not Amy Dallon, the publicly known identity of Panacea. They were fake.

A short interrogation once again revealed noting useful except that they'd been hired for a one-time job. They received their costumes from the actual Polychromic and Araliac that arrived in the warehouse. After that they were to pick up a package and drop it off. The one who gave them the package also knew nothing.

On the other hand, through a video feed, he was able to see the contents of the suitcase, which was revealed to be three vials that looked remarkably like the vial he had once purchased from Cauldron, along with three sheets of paper. On each was a different label and code, along with qualities indicated by a letter category and a number.

Were they real, Coil had to wonder. The vial he had purchased from Cauldron came with a set of instructions, disclaimers, and warnings, but nothing about its properties. Before he made his purchase, Cauldron had verbally told him what his potential choices were, in terms of possible powers, the strength of the power, and unwanted side effects. But nothing as clear cut as what he was seeing here. He looked closely at one of the sheets.

 _25% C0072/60% M1020/15% Foreign Element_

 _R: 6_

 _O: 8_

 _P: 2,7,11_

Then again, it was not particularly clear what any of the codes and properties referred to, despite being numeric and more precise compared to an estimate of "high" or "low". He had no idea what any of these referred to.

The best way to find out was to have someone drink it. His mercenaries were loyal, but not loyal to the point that they would drink a suspicious liquid taken from enemies on his orders, so he told them to force feed the captured fakes. Both of them fainted about half a minute after drinking the vials.

That was supposed to happen, Coil remembered. He had also fainted shortly after drinking the vials, and woke up not long after. Just like he did, the two fakes also woke up after another minute.

There were no clear signs that anything had changed, but many powers were not obvious or even instinctive. The only way to be sure was to scan their brains for the Corona Pollentia, and that could only be done at his base. He would also have to find a test subject who didn't already have a Corona Pollentia, otherwise the test would be inconclusive. Coil was aware that those with the potential to trigger naturally all had Corona Pollentias, which could not be easily distinguished from those who were actual capes.

He closed the timeline and decided to find an opportunity to take the vials later. For now, he would let the team continue tracking the fakes to see where they were taking the vials.

He checked back with the agent following the van. A snarl of frustration escaped his lips when the agent reported that the van entered a private condominium underground parking lot with security guards at the entrance.

He lost them. Once in the building, they could easily hide and mix with the residents or switch to another car. He split a timeline and ordered the agent to break through by force, but it was useless. Breaking through the guards by force put the two capes on alert, and in the enclosed space of the parking lot, his agent was easily defeated by the true Polychromic and Araliac.

O O O

By the time he exited the PRT building, Thomas Calvert was in a foul mood. He didn't show any of it on his expression during his meeting with Piggot, but he had been infuriated by the day's events. Not only had he completely failed to track down Polychromic to his base in the morning, he had been locked down the entire day at the PRT while his other timeline where he skipped work to stay at base produced nothing useful in his investigation into Polychromic.

Worse yet, there hadn't been an opportunity to check the top secret classified related file referred to in the Panacea disappearance file. Because his power was being used the whole day, and he was being heavily monitored, there was no chance to access the physically stored files.

Then there was the disappearance of Shadow Stalker and his supposed imposter, which made him feel all the more threatened. He didn't believe that it could be a coincidence that they chose to use his name—whoever did it had to be targeting him. What truly infuriated him was that it almost seemed like something he would have done himself, except it _wasn't_ him.

In the other timeline he had closed where he stayed at base, he had found out that Sophia Hess was wanted for attempted murder by the police in her civilian identity due to a new witness that came forward to testify on the locker incident from several months ago. Madison Clements had apparently confessed to the police— suspicious, Calvert thought—and Sophia escaped from school when the police investigators arrived to arrest her.

Only then did his imposter conveniently warn her about a supposed new Master, playing on her paranoia and leading to her disappearance.

It was a beautiful plan that Coil might have used to recruit Shadow Stalker to his own villain organization, except for the fact that his name was exposed and the PRT broke into his house when he was also suspiciously absent from work, forcing him to choose this timeline and using his powers again to navigate the PRT's interrogation of him at HQ.

It was maddening that he could lose control and be a piece in someone else's game. It was a feeling deeply unfamiliar to Coil ever since he had acquired his powers.

And his instincts told him Polychromic had something to do with it.

The only saving grace was that the Cauldron vials had been retrieved to base, and he had also identified Skitter as Taylor Hebert after his men tracked her to her house.

As soon as he got home he split again, using one timeline to connect to PRT networks to access the latest information on the Shadow Stalker disappearance case, and the other to make preparations for dinner. He had a lot to do tonight.

O O O

He ended the successful call with Faultline and closed the other timeline where he hadn't called her.

It wasn't easy to negotiate with Faultline. He rarely hired Faultline's Crew because he didn't want to rely on a mercenary team that wasn't subordinate and loyal to him, but in this case he didn't have any better options.

His Tattletale was a useful source of information, but he couldn't deploy the Undersiders in this kind of reconnaissance operation. Not yet, in any case. They lacked the skills and the mindset for it.

The vials had turned out to be fake as he had expected, but then that raised the question of why Polychromic had arranged for the transport of fake vials. He had racked his brain trying to figure out why and the only thing he could think of was that it was a message. Nobody had picked it up, and leaving something like that for a long time was very insecure. But like the notes that the other homeless people from the warehouse had been instructed to leave at specified locations, merely leaving the vials would be enough to deliver a message. But to who? If it was simply to check whether somebody had been following and intercepting them, they wouldn't have needed such an elaborate ruse, a simple note or other random object would have been fine.

So then it wasn't just the fact that it was successfully delivered that had to be communicated, but also that they were fake Cauldron vials. From this, Coil deduced that the message was meant for somebody who could recognize them. Somebody like himself, in fact. Was it a warning, a threat to stop, lest he incur the wrath of that organization? He thought it unlikely. Cauldron had other means of warning him.

Then was it an invitation to a curious person that wanted to know what links Polychromic had to that organization? Or perhaps there was a coded message embedded in the papers?

To these questions Coil had yet no answer. But it did give him the idea to use Cauldron as bait to entice Faultline. She might even find a real link there, in which case she would be a useful buffer to protect himself from retribution.

He wouldn't normally want to antagonize Cauldron but after he found out that somebody used his name to contact Shadow Stalker, Coil decided that he had to take a more aggressive approach. Polychromic, the Stranger or Mover that worked with him, and CRUCIBLE had proven themselves very dangerous, and now there was somebody actively targeting Thomas Calvert's civilian identity, so the situation merited a tougher response.

Done with everything that needed his power, he split the timeline again and in one he went into his secret room attached to his main office at base. In here, he would be fully secure as he slept.

In the other timeline, he stayed up and did his usual routine, looking into important news around the city, other PRT operations, checking his stocks, Fortress Construction's business, etc.

It was a strange sensation when he was asleep in one timeline and awake in the other. He had gotten used to it by now, but the dissonance of being blissfully asleep yet also aware of being asleep from the wake timeline was always noticeable.

It was especially strange when he was dreaming. As long as he was awake in one timeline, he could be distinctly aware of when he fell asleep, and when he was dreaming. This also meant that all of his dreams were lucid.

If his power's discarded timelines could be likened to a dream for the Thomas Calvert in the true timeline, then his dreams could also be likened to a use of his power. After all, he could do whatever he wanted with no consequence except the same limitation that time would always pass, and their lucidity made them so vivid as to be real.

That too was one of the reasons he tried not to use his power frivolously too often. If he did anything he absolutely could not tolerate in the true timeline, yet accidently closed the wrong timeline, that would be most unfortunate. If he wanted to relieve stress, it would be simple to do so in a dream instead, where there was no risk.

So while he worked in one timeline, he was relieving his stress in the other, with violent, destructive fantasies, like—

A shock tore through his body—he tried to grab for his gun—

 _Taser—paralyzed—_

Something sprayed into his face, and he desperately tried to stop breathing, but his muscles spasmed with current and he couldn't control himself.

When the taser was removed from his back, his vision was already blurring, and something was roughly shoved onto his face, covering his nose and mouth.

Just before he blacked out, he tried to wake up in his secure sleeping timeline while he was still lucid, fearful that he would be truly unconscious for the first time in years.

He didn't wake up.

O O O

A/N: So arc 2 is over. Things moved faster than even I expected. It's only been a day in-story since the PRT meeting at the end of the last arc...

Another reminder that the first chapter of this story has been significantly changed, and the MC now has a backstory. You should go back to reread it.


	23. Volition 3-1

**Volition 3.1**

I dragged Coil's unconscious body through the portal and back to the cave, where I quickly blindfolded, gagged, restrained, and stripped him, then put him inside an empty crate that I secured to some bolts I planted in the ground and cave walls.

It went surprisingly smoothly, but I couldn't be certain of my victory yet. The possibility existed that Coil wouldn't be keeping this timeline and he would merely be alerted to an attack. I had to wait a bit longer before I could be confident that I had won.

Earlier, when I observed that he was testing the Cauldron vials, I knew he was probably at base in both timelines, and I thought it was very likely he had stayed there for the conversation with Tattletale and Faultline as well. Even if he didn't, he needed to choose the timeline where he stayed if he wanted to keep his results from negotiating with them.

By then I had decided it was necessary to attack Coil as soon as possible and formulated a plan.

I would wait until late night to see if he went to sleep. If he did, I would wait until I was sure he had fallen asleep, then strike.

If he didn't go to sleep, I would observe for clues that he had a sleep timeline going. If I were Coil, I would be planning to keep a sleeping timeline to ensure my good health, so in the other timeline I couldn't be doing anything too important as it would be discarded after waking up in the morning.

Finally, if he didn't go to sleep and I couldn't deduce whether he had a sleep timeline going, I would strike after a set amount of time had passed no matter what.

So when I saw Coil doing what seemed to be general research and information gathering, without any active operations going on, and having finished with the calls earlier, I thought he probably had a sleep timeline going.

If I was right, then it was my victory.

If I was wrong and he was off doing something else, then because Agate would still be observing him, the me in that other timeline would _know_ if he knew that he had been attacked in this timeline, and respond accordingly by rushing to attack before he could surround himself with guards.

If he managed to get to guards before I attacked, I would have to deploy area sedation bombs through the portal to try and knock all of them unconscious while Agate attacked them physically on the other side.

If I judged it too risky to strike for whatever reason and decided against attacking at the pre-determined time, then it would become a waiting game. I would camp at the cave, essentially immune to any threat that couldn't reach across dimensions, until there was a chance to strike. I was ready to stay camped here for days if necessary.

Tonight was my best chance to defeat Coil before he knew too much about me, and my success in capturing him seemed to prove that.

But the conditions hadn't been ideal. The biggest problem was that the portals lasted 21 minutes each because we didn't have enough time to refine it further. The portal I had used to capture Coil was still open, in fact.

Because the portal stayed open for too long, I could be pursued through it. Moreover, it limited me to attacking Coil in an isolated place where nobody else would go, like his base or his house. If he simply stayed in public, my plan would fail.

The second problem was how to manage Coil's imprisonment. Because I had ended up attacking so soon after Agate acquired the ability to open portals, I couldn't explain this to Amelia or Taylor.

I suddenly captured a man who was Coil, demonstrating a new power to use portals and attack people from anywhere? That was highly suspicious. We were a team, after all. Why didn't I include them in this operation, and how did they even know the man I captured was really Coil?

Originally, I had been thinking about revealing the portals to Amelia and Taylor first, then planning to defeat Coil when he went for Dinah. I was quite certain that he would be using his powers to guarantee the success of that operation. That way, we would have indisputable proof of Coil's evil nature, allowing me to justify capturing him.

But because he hadn't actually kidnapped Dinah yet, he hadn't yet committed any truly despicable crimes. If I let him talk, he might even convince the girls that he was a misunderstood hero trying to fight against a corrupt system.

That was also why I couldn't include them on this operation. I was going to attack even if he went to sleep as Thomas Calvert, but I couldn't share what I saw through Agate with the girls, which meant that from their perspective, we would be kidnapping a PRT official in their civilian identity that I claimed to be a villain purely based on my "precognition" and "projected senses" that they couldn't verify in any way.

But that was something to think about later.

I switched on Coil's costume and went back through the portal with a smirk.

O O O

Coil's costume was a decent fit for me. Not perfect, as I was slightly taller, but other than that it was surprisingly fitting. The way that the costume apparently clung to Coil's ribs was actually an illusion created by the costume's structure. Coil wasn't that skinny—as a commander in the field, he was quite fit and lean, muscled but not bulky.

I waited for the portal to close and got to work.

The first order of business was to get familiar with Coil's computer. I had already observed him using it through Agate, and managed to catch a number of important passwords, but it would take time to sort through all the information he had and truly understand his organization's operations.

One of the things that helped me significantly, and I imagine Tattletale when she took over as well, was that Coil didn't use biometric keys for anything. In order for his body double to handle his affairs when he was away, and to leave no evidence of Thomas Calvert being Coil, absolutely nothing in his organization required biometric scans.

Tattletale's power to just give her passwords was ludicrous but that would certainly allow her to take over most of Coil's operations and hack her way into his funds as well.

On the other hand, it also wasn't enough to find the compartmentalized accounts he had under various other identities that he didn't normally access by himself, instead using intermediaries to manage. There were also the accounts that couldn't be touched due to legal restrictions, like Fortress Constructions and various other companies, trusts, and real estate he owned.

As a result, Tattletale had only managed to steal a fraction of the funds I realized Coil had access to during the time I observed him.

Not having Tattletale's power, it would definitely take some time for me to seize all of Coil's assets, and I still needed more information out of Coil before I got everything I wanted.

That was why he was still alive.

After about an hour, I had a passing familiarity with what was available on his computer. I found his base construction blueprints and had Agate map it what had already been constructed in person as well. I found how to contact Circus, Chariot, Faultline's Crew, the Travelers, etc. I found how to make purchases from Toybox, equipment inventories and distributions at base, personnel listings, dossiers on every cape in Brockton Bay, and much, much more.

Too much information, really, it was a little overwhelming.

I also found out how to get in touch with the Number Man's banking organization to launder funds, which was critical. It seemed like such a minor thing, but I hadn't been able to find out through PHO or other public places. This would certainly put me on Cauldron's radar, but there was nothing I could do about it—everyone used Number Man's services.

Once I had that, I spent the next hour setting up some new accounts for myself, and moving funds from the accounts I observed Coil accessing before. It was an open question whether someone like Tattletale could hack into these new accounts, but I didn't think so.

If she could, she would have been able to simply hack any account of any villain organization in the world, giving her vast resources long before she took over from Coil. There were requirements and conditions to how her power generated passwords that I didn't fully understand yet.

But one thing I suspected that was her power couldn't pull computer generated random passwords. I suspected that despite what it looked like to me, Coil's passwords weren't truly random, and he didn't realize just how powerful Tattletale's ability was.

He must have used a custom password construction system that only appeared random, but allowed Coil to memorize the non-random keys associated with each account, and then the hash algorithm that he could mentally calculate each time in order to produce a unique password from each key. I did something similar myself for my own digital security measures back on my Earth, but the algorithm wasn't nearly as sophisticated as what Coil had to be using.

This meant that Tattletale was able to use her power to analyze Coil each time she met and interacted with him, until it was sufficient for her power to give her one of his password algorithms. Or maybe she used a keylogger, found a password manager somewhere, etc. I was fairly confident that she had to be exploiting an actual security vulnerability that Coil couldn't defend against once he was dead, while the PRT passwords she supposedly figured out were actually supplied by Coil to a certain extent.

For myself, I could now use actual computer generated passwords, and—

' _The most secure password manager ever!'_ Agate finished for me.

And just like that, I was $30 million richer. The rest of the money would take some more work to acquire.

O O O


	24. Volition 3-2

**Volition 3.2**

"Sir," Captain Heroux stood at attention in front of me uniformed and unarmed.

I clicked a part of the desktop wallpaper and the door to the room locked with a click.

To his credit, Heroux didn't even flinch, calmly staring at me. I wondered if he was able to notice any discrepancies. I was sure he could, but he wouldn't act without being certain of the situation. After all, Coil routinely used a body double, and nobody knew who the man behind the mask was. Even if I acted a little differently, wasn't it natural to assume that I was just another scheme of Coil's, sitting here in Coil's private office like it was perfectly natural?

"At ease, Captain. You are one of my most trusted men. I called you here to have a little talk. Nothing too serious. Have a seat," I said, gesturing him to sit down.

He nodded and did as told.

"You've been with me for quite some time now, Heroux, and led a great many successful operations. You were here before this base was built, even, and you've served me well as our organization, business, and territory grew," I said, pretending to be familiar with him using the info from his personnel dossier and performance notes.

"Yes, sir," he replied neutrally.

"In recent times, Brockton Bay has reached a boiling point. Tension between the gangs have been rising steadily and the PRT is buckling under the pressure. With the events of the last few days, the sudden defeat of Lung and Oni Lee and the rise of a new hero team, one could say that the situation is about to explode," I explained, drawing an ominous picture. "And with this base's construction nearing completion, so too is our organization at a critical juncture—one of both crisis…and _opportunity_."

I closely observed the expression on Heroux's face, unchanging as it was, his eyes widened marginally to reveal a glimmer of interest.

"I will be blunt. I am not interested in being a common villain. You have seen for yourself how we operate. You have been in the military, and you must…recognize the differences between our organization and the so-called villain gangs of this city," I said, pausing for a long moment with an upwards tilt of my head.

Heroux took the hint and answered. "Yes. We are disciplined, organized, and well-equipped. We are functionally closer to a private army than a gang."

"Precisely." I nodded and leaned forward. "Do you know why that is? Do you understand why I built the organization this way, what it is that we have been working towards all this time?"

He was quiet for a moment, a hint of caution in his expression. "Sir, you give us orders and we follow them. It is not my place to know your grand designs."

"No need to be so stiff, Captain Heroux. I am not testing you," I said. We both knew that was a lie, but it had to be said. "Much like myself, you're an ambitious man. You must have had some guesses. Humor me, call it curiosity. What do you think we are working towards?" It was a bit of a leading question, and a way to build rapport, as I alluded to our mutually ambitious nature.

"If I had to guess, then…a greater calling. Something beyond simple money, territory, and petty crime. Something that goes beyond just this city, maybe. Something you need a professional army for, and not just a small group of capes like the other gangs."

I chuckled slowly. "You're exactly right. That's a very good answer."

My expression got serious again. "You remember the crisis when Professor Haywire opened a portal to Earth Aleph? The first thing on people's minds."

Finally, I got a noticeable look of surprise from him this time. "You mean…war?"

"Right again. In those days, when people realized there was a whole other world of resources, the possibility of war immediately came to mind. And Bet would win, because we had all the capes. We avoided war back then…but our world has since been ravaged by the Endbringers, entire nations devastated, and in the midst of the chaos, parahuman groups like the Yangban and Red Gauntlet have risen. You have been deployed to Asia as US military tried and failed to support its allies in times of great upheaval, so you have seen first hand how parahumans and the Endbringers have all but destroyed the old order."

"I cannot deny your words. I left the military because I lost faith in its ability to achieve its mission, you know this, of course. The US may be a superpower still, but that power is no longer backed by the army, navy or air force, nor even by nuclear weapons, but by parahumans. And even that is a questionable thing, if the state of lawlessness in this country is anything to go by," he said.

"The existence of other worlds is not a secret anymore, and despite the tenuous peace we have agreed to with Aleph, do you really think that this state of affairs can last, knowing what you know about the way Bet is going?"

He frowned. "You think that there will be war with Aleph?"

I unlocked the door, and stood up. "Walk with me."

He stood to follow, and we exited the room into the hallway. Between my office and the base's entrance were over ten guards and multiple sets of heavy metal doors. But we wouldn't be going past all of them.

I strode purposefully in towards a certain room away from the eyes and ears of any guards and employees. It was the room Coil had reserved for Dinah once kidnapped, and currently empty so it did not need any guards.

We stopped in front of the door, and I turned around to face Heroux.

"Aleph is not the only other world out there, and Professor Haywire will not be the only parahuman that can find a way to access other worlds. When the Endbringers have destroyed half the world's cities in a decade, what will the desperate people of Bet turn to? Even without the possibility of refuge in another world, Bet is destined to descend into chaos. I know not what would emerge, but the status quo cannot last! Today villains and gangs can hold _territory_ in a city, a decade from now perhaps parahuman warlords will _rule nations_ and _worlds_!" I gestured grandly to emphasize the point.

"The question is, what role would you want to play in such a future? Are you satisfied being a mere mercenary, or would you aspire to be part of something _greater_ , with all the _privileges_ and _responsibilities_ that would entail?"

Heroux was a smart man, and I could see the understanding in his eyes, as I alluded to a position of power within a new world order.

"I…would be a part of something greater, sir. A part of the empire of your rule," he said firmly, holding his right hand over his heart and bowing his head slightly.

My lips curled into a smirk. Now all I needed was one last move to convince this man that I was the "true" cape behind Coil, who never showed his men his power until the Undersiders, to the point where people thought he might be unpowered.

"Very good, Heroux. I require loyal and capable men like you. Now rise and look upon the future!" On one hand, I took out an access card.

I held out my other hand with my palm facing up, and Agate flashed into existence with a multicolored display of lights, floating freely in the air. She would become my symbol, the absolute proof of who I was without revealing my face.

I gripped onto Agate and directed her at the door. A rainbow beam emerged from her tip and struck the door, engulfing it in light.

Then I unlocked the door, which opened automatically, and on the other side was—

A blue sky and fresh air, a magnificent view from a great height that looked out into vast plains and forests, with the daylight sun shining brightly in the air.

Heroux's eyes were wide open as he stared.

I walked through and waited for him on the other side.

He was taken out of his stupor once I did so, and quickly followed after me, almost stumbling as he crossed the threshold to the peak of the small mountain that we now stood on.

He turned this way and that way, looking around in wonder, before marvelling at the unnatural rectangular gap in reality we just stepped through.

I waited silently for him to get his bearings.

"This…is this another world?" He murmured, still not quite believing what I had been implying all this time.

But that was a simple matter to solve.

"Take out your phone and check your GPS. We are out in the open, high in the air, with nothing blocking the signal," I suggested.

He did so. He looked back at me with a new vigour, after confirming that the signal was gone.

"Take a good, long look. A whole new world, vast untapped resources, continents of unoccupied land, untouched by the ravages of the Endbringers and capes. This one is untouched by human civilization, even, free of pollution in the air and oceans," I swept out my arm gesturing to everything below us.

"And…it's only one of many more…" He murmured, looking out at the horizon. "Yes, I understand now…what you have been working towards…!"

"There is much work to be done, and a long road ahead of us. It will not be easy, but I am sure it will be rewarding. As of today, your salary is doubled, and you are hereby promoted to the rank of Major. But remember, you must tell no one of what you have learned today about my power, our eventual goals, or your promotion. Know for yourself what lies ahead, but those who are not worthy do not need to know, until the time is right. Everything you have seen and heard today are classified strictly to yourself and me, and your salary raise will be paid from a different source."

He gave me a military salute. "Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!"

"Ah…and that includes _Coil_ , Major Heroux. You should be aware that he is merely a puppet of mine, unaware of our true aims. Should I desire to speak with you as my true self, I will call you by your new rank, or wield this symbol of my power," I said, raising Agate again.

"Understood."

O O O

"Sir," Captain Reynolds stood at attention in front of me uniformed and unarmed.

I clicked a part of the desktop wallpaper and the door to the room locked with a click.

"At ease, Captain. You are one of my most trusted…"

O O O


	25. Volition 3-3

**Volition 3.3**

' _Wake up, wake up!'_

Agate's voice blared in my mind, and I forced myself up.

"Ugh…" I groaned and sat up from the couch.

I was now paying the price for two nights of barely any sleep. I checked the time and it was almost 11.

' _Do you remember what happened in the dreams?_ ' Agate asked me.

I went to the washroom and did my morning routine while trying to remember.

' _Somewhat…not very clearly but I think I got the big pieces.'_

A while back I told Agate to try and stop listening in on all my thoughts, as it wasn't really fair that I couldn't listen in on hers. The problem was that I didn't have prana of my own to send to her, so the things that I could perceive from her end were very limited, and she had to actively send me her senses, thoughts, and such. While I felt that I could trust Agate, more than anyone or anything else anyway, it was a fact of life that everybody needed a semblance of privacy at times as well. It would also be a debilitating weakness if we got used to "thinking together", and then met an enemy that could somehow block the psychic exchange.

She was reluctant about it, but agreed that it wasn't really fair. Over time the mental bond between us had become better and better, so now I had a sense of when she was listening and when she wasn't, and the fluidity of switching between broadcasting thoughts to her or just thinking to myself was also improving.

Last night after I left Coil's base and returned to the apartment, I sent Agate out to find the Palanquin, the nightclub that Faultline's Crew uses as a front and headquarters.

Part of it was to see what, if anything, Faultline was up to, but the bigger reason was Labyrinth.

It had slipped my mind last week that Labyrinth had an overtly dimensional power that was easily in reach and observable.

I was only reminded of this when Coil had contacted Faultline's Crew, and I started thinking about their members' capabilities and how I might have to deal with them when they came after me. Had I remembered this sooner, I would have sent Agate to find her shortly after she came back from the Simurgh portal from Madison.

Simultaneously, as our mental attunement had gotten better, and Agate started to properly understand human perception, we tested a new way to use our shared senses.

While I was asleep, Agate attempted to send signals of her observations and thoughts into my mind through the dream process.

It wasn't entirely successful, but nor was it a total failure. She hadn't been able to simply replace my dream with her senses, but I got impressions of what she had been doing, flashes of the visuals, and most of her thoughts at the time. But because I was dreaming, it wasn't as clear as my conscious memories, and I would have to spend some time sorting them out.

' _You found them, and they were just asleep, except Labyrinth. I couldn't tell if she was asleep or just like that normally. Her power was still very active.'_

' _That's great! You remembered! And I learned a lot from watching her.'_

Labyrinth had the power to reach into other realities and pull objects "closer" to this reality. What she did was very strange, things that she pulled over weren't necessarily here or there but somewhere in between. She could choose whether to pull them close enough to be solid and interact with objects in this reality, or leave them visible but untouchable.

It was somewhat similar to how Agate phased out of sync with this reality.

At first, it had taken a while to figure just _how_ to scan and analyze what Labyrinth was doing, but after a while, when Agate combined what she learned from portal-making, she successfully developed a new sensor program for it.

The space that she worked with was closely related to the space that Agate phased into, but not quite the same. It was a sort of different layer that connected all of the different parallel realities of the Worm multiverse. Agate's phase space was outside of that, between that layer and the even more "outside" Kaleidospace—also known as the Blind Eternities.

This was getting somewhat confusing, so new terminology was in order.

The layer that Agate phased into would now be called pseudokaleidospace—pseudoKspace for short, while the layer that Labyrinth worked with would be called Wormvoid.

I decided to call it Wormvoid because it was not yet clear if such a similar space existed in other non-Worm reality clusters.

' _I think pseudoKspace should be renamed agatespace.'_

' _You can call it Agatespace if you want._ '

' _But there's a real reason for it! I'm not just naming it after myself._ '

' _And why is that?_ '

' _Onyx crystals have parallel bands and agate crystals have curved bands, representing parallel and alternate reality manipulation. It's part of the incantation from our contract ritual._ _What you're calling pseudoKspace is the semi-physical layer than connects reality clusters to the Kaleidospace. Since it's part of the pathway to alternate realities, we can call it agatespace._ '

' _Oh, that's pretty interesting. So then should we call Wormvoid Onyxspace instead?_ '

' _No that's different. Wormvoid isn't actually between parallel realities, at least not in the way Master Zelretch defines it. It would be more accurate to say that Wormvoid is a sublayer of agatespace, because it also links alternate realities in a sense, but it's a space without the Primordial Chaos energy, which is why people and things can freely move through it. These alternate realities exist in a structure that's unique to this sector of Kaleidospace, as far as I know. Your Earth world and the world I came don't have any stable alternate realities._ '

' _What? I don't understand, what does parallel reality for the Fate universe mean then?_

' _When we manipulate parallel realities, what we're really doing is manipulating world lines. There are an infinite number of branching world lines, but there are also major convergence points that world lines gravitate towards, and the superposition of all world lines is the true reality. The individual branching world lines aren't true permanent realities in and of themselves. You might understand them as quantum probabilities, but it's a little more complex than that. These parallel realities can't exist independently of each other, nor can anything physically travel between them. The Second Magic and anything that exists outside of space-time are exceptions to that rule, but there are limits to those too. The structure of the world lines is what I would call onxyspace, but that's a conceptual rather than a physical space._ '

It took me a long moment to process all of that. Was that really how things worked in the Fate franchise I read? There was no way to tell, really, unless I went back to my Earth and found the authors. But so what if it wasn't? I had already expected that some things might be different.

' _Okay, agatespace and Wormvoid it is then. So what is this Primordial Chaos you mentioned?_ '

Since this had turned into a lecture, and I had some free time now that the big threat of Coil had been neutralized, I might as well learn more about the whole thing.

' _Well, you know that the Root is the source of all creation and the record of all things. But the truth is, Master Zelretch realized that the Root that we knew of in our universe wasn't the True Root. Even if we touched it, it was being filtered through something else, which we don't fully understand yet. The filter is different for every universe. But we think that the filter is related to the combination of the Primordial Chaos energy in the Kaleidospace, and the Creation Mystery that orders the Chaos into stable realities. Primordial Chaos is the reason that things get destroyed in Kaleidospace, and also the reason that living things die in agatespace. Agatespace is a kind of thin membrane that filters out the Primordial Chaos from disrupting the realities we can exist in._ '

' _I see…then if the barrier blocking our exit is in Kaleidospace, that's pretty much the worst scenario, isn't it? It's powerful enough to withstand Primordial Chaos for such a long time._ '

' _Actually, I got an idea about that last night! It might be easier to get around than if it was in Wormvoid or agatespace. We may not be able to break through it directly, but it's possible that the barrier isn't very big, so we can just go around it. This reality cluster is huge, and the energy it would take to block off all of it would be ludicrously massive. From what we know about the Cycle and the limits on shard powers beyond the moon, it's possible that Scion only blocked off a small section of real space and Wormvoid. If he thinks we can't go very far in real space anyway, and he's already blocked off most of the local Wormvoid for the Cycle, he only needs a barrier in Kaleidospace big enough to cover the part he wants isolated for the Cycle. That means we might be able to get escape if we travelled beyond the moon, or if we found a way to break through the Wormvoid barriers.'_

' _That's genius! I hope he hasn't put up a barrier in real space too, then. If he hasn't…then all we have to is find a way to get into space. We'd have to get through the Simurgh somehow, but at least there's a direction to work towards now._ _Can you just make a portal to beyond the moon?_ '

' _Sorry, I can't! Those portals use Wormvoid warping, and we can't go that far in real space through Wormvoid. The limit is approximately the distance to the moon. That's probably why the shard powers stop working at the moon, they all use Wormvoid in some way to channel their powers._ '

Damn, of course it wouldn't be that easy.

' _Alright, we'll think up some ways to get into space later. Anything else important you learned?_ '

' _Labyrinth pulls things through Wormvoid from other realities. I'm not sure how she's shifting them into Wormvoid from real space, But if I could observe it from the other end, where the objects leave real space, I think I could then figure out how we can move into Wormvoid ourselves._ '

' _What about the opposite? What if you tracked where the objects came from, then open a portal to that reality, head through, and wait for Labyrinth to release the object eventually on that side?_ '

' _That could work…but it will take a lot more observation of Labyrinth. I have to figure out how to calculate the relative position of realities in Wormvoid first. So far my portals just use Waypoint beacons without any calculations.'_

In the end I decided that while gaining Wormvoid phasing as an ability would be extremely useful, there were other priorities for Agate in the short term and I might need her with me to protect myself, so I didn't send her to continue observing Labyrinth during the day time.

When I exited the washroom, I noticed that Amelia wasn't home. I texted her and found out that she went to the warehouse base, so I made breakfast for myself and went over as well.


	26. Volition 3-4

**Volition 3.4**

It was an innocent text. I knew that, but having undertaken so many risky ventures, I couldn't let my guard down. If she really wanted to do anything to me, she could have done so when I was asleep, I knew. But maybe she was snooping around, trying to find evidence that all was not as it seemed with me, maybe she wanted to prepare something bigger to take me out, or maybe she just plainly went crazy. You never knew with shard influence.

I sent Agate to spy on her at the warehouse first.

She was manipulating the growth of several organisms. One was a large brown thing bigger than a human, that looked a bit like a tree but without any branches. No, that wasn't accurate. If I looked closely, it kind of did resemble a human in some ways, like a person that'd been absorbed into it. Creepy. The others were smaller, wiggling things that were shifting constantly and mixed with puddles of goo.

I put on a big coat and hid a pistol, a small rifle with a laser attachment I acquired from Coil's base, and my trusty flamethrower. Then I called back Agate and attached a sharp knife to her.

I went over to the warehouse prepared for the worst, and assuming the best.

I entered with a pleasant smile.

"Hey, Amelia. What are you working on?" I asked curiously.

"You know how Taylor's costume is made of spider silk? It's really strong. Probably bullet proof, even. I asked her about it, and she said she made it by commanding spiders to weave it over her body. We don't have any brute powers so a costume like that would be really useful. But it will take her a week to make a new costume for either of us, so I thought I might try to make something myself."

I looked at the brown tree-human thing and fought off a grimace.

"Is that cellulose you're trying to make?"

"Yeah. This is stronger than spider silk, and also much easier to make."

"Really? Why's it easier to make?"

"Cellulose is produced naturally in plants. There's more cellulose than any other material in the biosphere. But it's not as strong in nature because the nanofibres aren't aligned perfectly, but I can use my power to make them grow the way I want."

I tentatively reached out a hand to touch the organic material, and Amelia nodded her permission.

"So how strong is this?"

"I don't have anything to test for precise numbers, but I'd guess it's about ten times stronger than spider silk."

" _Ten times_ stronger?" I asked with incredulity. "Cellulose can be that strong?" I had researched the strength of spider silk compared to Kevlar to better understand Taylor's capabilities, and ten times would be stronger than graphene.

"Well, it's not just cellulose, I can make properly aligned cellulose in just a few minutes. So I've been experimenting with mixing other things into it."

I looked at the puddles of goo and the smaller organisms. So that was what they were, not processed human flesh. I sent Agate back to drop the knife.

I watched for a while longer, I decided to her ask about one of the things I really hoped she could make.

"Are you able to make living power armour? Like a symbiotic organism covering our bodies that both enhances, protects, and heals us?"

"Probably. But that's a lot harder. If it was easy I'd have just done that instead."

"You were able to make a counter to Bonesaw's mass killer plague in just a few seconds in a future I saw. I'm sure you can do it."

"It's not the same though. Plagues happen naturally, Bonesaw probably just made a mutation. I could also make a plague like that in seconds. Living symbiotic creatures like what you're thinking of are orders of magnitude more complex and there's no natural template to work off of."

"I see…by the way, you know what you're doing looks really creepy without any context? That thing looks like it absorbed a human body."

"Huh…you're right. Fuck, what is wrong with me?"

"Hey I'm not saying it's bad. I'm glad you're making armour for us, the process just _looks_ creepy. I am okay with this. Really. But you should give Taylor a heads up when she comes by."

"Alright."

As she continued to experiment, I went on PHO. Looking at the responses to my post yesterday, there was nothing in particular that stood out to me. Some people were very excited about a new hero team, others were suspicious about our video that failed to show the details of how exactly we defeated Lung and Oni Lee. Some even flamed me for using overly aggressive language in my post and stirring up trouble.

When time for lunch came around, I brought Amelia to a private room in a luxurious restaurant. We were disguised, of course. As a matter of habit, I checked the room for potential bugs and cameras, and Agate scanned it for electronic activity to be sure.

She gave me suspicious looks all the way until we sat down. "I didn't think you were the type to spend on luxury as soon as you got a little bit of money. Is _this_ why you tried to convince me to charge for healing?"

"You really think so lowly of me?" I frowned. "I'm not a stranger to wealth. When I arrived on Earth Bet, I lost all of it, but you saw what conditions I was living in over the past week. I don't splurge meaninglessly."

"Well, what else am I supposed to make of this?" She gestured to the extravagant meal and room. "Besides, you never told me what you did before last week. All I know is that you fell off a tree and had to come to me for free healing."

"I was a self-made, very wealthy businessman, despite my youth. I am very good at managing resources, rest assured. Anyways, I brought you here for a reason. I have very good news and thought we should celebrate a little."

"Good news? Does this have to do with how late you were up last night?"

"That's right. I tracked Coil to his base last night and used my powers to spy on him. Then I got some of his passwords and hacked him, stealing $30 million in the process."

"You…what? $30 _million_?" I smirked at her dumbstruck face.

"I think that's worth a small celebration, don't you? And we should celebrate with Taylor tonight after school too."

"This isn't a joke, is it?"

"Not at all." I took out my phone and accessed one of the many accounts I opened, then showed her the balance which was in excess of two million.

"This is just one of the accounts I transferred the money to. I'll be heading to the bank to grab our new debit and credit cards this afternoon. Everything was set up through the Number Man, so it's safe."

She was still staring at the number shown on my screen silently.

"There is some bad news too though," I said.

She turned her attention back to me as soon as she heard my say bad news.

"Coil hired Faultline's Crew to investigate us, and specifically asked her to find out our civilian identities. Faultline agreed."

"That's against the rules!"

"Coil doesn't play by the rules. And now we know, neither does Faultline," I said with a dark look. "We can't hold back against that kind of enemy."

"But why would he want our civilian identities? Do you think he suspects who I am?" She asked worriedly.

"Yes. I spied on him discussing it with Tattletale as well. She is confident that Araliac is Panacea."

"Shit!"

"Don't worry, it's not that big of a deal if they know. It was going to be revealed sooner or later, and what really matters is that the PRT doesn't treat you as having turned villain by leaving New Wave – which they won't now, because you joined another hero team with a major public accomplishment."

That was when the waitress started bringing food in, so the conversation paused for a bit as we started eating.

After a while, she spoke up again. "Coil was able to target Taylor's dad, right? That means he probably knows her identity already. What about you? Do you have any family he might target?"

"Worried about me? Don't be. I don't have any family or anyone else close to me. Remember, I don't even have a real civilian identity, seeing as I'm not originally from this plane of existence."

"You keep saying that…what does that mean? Why can't you tell me?"

"I have something I want to show you this afternoon. I'll tell you a little more about it then."

O O O

After lunch, we went back to the warehouse base. Then I held out my hand, and Agate phased into existence with colorful lights. Without waiting for Amelia to respond, I opened a portal to the other world, which I decided to call Earth M.

I suggested to Amelia to check her GPS signal to verify that it was a different world, but to my surprise, she said, "I can already tell by the different strains of bacteria in the air, there are some that simply don't exist on Earth Bet."

"I haven't been able to find any human settlements on this world yet," I said after bringing her to the edge of a vast forest using another portal back to the warehouse and then a second portal here.

"That means all this biomass is available for you to use freely."

She went up to a tree and touched her hand to the trunk. "Amazing…this species…"

"I told you before that I come from different plane of existence entirely. Not like the parallel worlds the Entities can access. This is another of the parallel worlds, similar to Earth Aleph. I was experimenting with this yesterday and figured out how to open these portals. Over time, I will develop even more abilities, because my powers don't come from the same source as parahumans."

She turned back to me. "Rather than coming from a different plane of existence, how I do know you didn't just get some of Professor Haywire's stuff?"

"I don't actually have any way to prove it to you, which is why I didn't want to talk about this before. You can use your ability to check for lies on me again if you want, but does it really make any difference? I can't prove that I'm not just delusional, or from a parallel world that I _thought_ was a different plane of existence. It's like that for the things I know too, isn't it? There are always other possible explanations for why I have powers and apparent precognition without a Corona Pollentia. I could be an Endbringer in human form, a human-based projection by a cape who does have a Corona, or I could have been told these things and given some Tinkertech by other capes who tricked me into believing that I'm from a different plane."

Her eyes assessed me, looking as if she _wanted_ to believe me. "I'm still not sure I can believe you, and there's still not a lot of proof about the whole Scion will kill everyone thing. But you have been right about a lot of other things and I do believe that you believe what you're saying. I can't honestly say it's impossible either…so why did you come here, if you're from another plane?"

I gave her an appreciative smile.

"The parallel worlds like Aleph, and this world, Earth M, all exist within the same reality cluster, which we can also call a plane of existence. All of these worlds share the same set of physical laws, but there are other planes even beyond them, with different laws. I come from one of those planes. On my plane, there were some records of events that happened, or would happen, on some other planes. I had read some of the records about this plane we're in now, which is where my special knowledge comes from. However, at the time, it was little more than entertainment and curiosity. Travelling to or from other planes wasn't supposed to be possible, and nobody knew if those records were even real. But one day, two individuals with godlike powers arrived on my plane, and everything changed."

"That sounds an awful lot like what happened to us with Scion. Did your plane also have Entities?"

"No, they were different. These two were travellers from other planes, not other realities within the same plane. They also didn't come from the same plane, but two different ones. One of them was just exploring, having just discovered how to travel between planes. The other one had followed the first one, and was an old being that had been able to travel the planes for a long time, and did not like that other beings not of his race could travel the planes, so he attacked the first one. I was caught up in the middle of their battle and the second traveller tried to kill me just for seeing him. The first traveller was more reasonable…he gave me the ability to travel planes myself in order to help me escape."

I turned around and looked at the sky in melancholy.

"To survive, I was forced to leave everything behind and travel to a random other plane, then I found myself in Brockton Bay. When I arrived, I discovered that something had blocked off the way out, so I couldn't leave anymore. I was in a foreign world, penniless, injured, and alone, with nothing but a bit of special knowledge, which might not have been reliable, about the past and future."

There was a moment of silence, and then Amelia walked up to stand beside me.

"Kaleidus, tell me honestly. Do you actually want to save the world? Or do you just want to go back home, to your own plane?"

I looked down and sighed. I didn't answer for a few seconds. "That second traveller…before I escaped, he summoned a legion of monsters to attack my plane. It wouldn't be safe to go back, even if I could. For all I know, everyone on my world might be dead or enslaved by now. I can't say that I'm looking forward to fighting Scion. I don't see it as my obligation, really...I'm stuck here right now and don't have a choice, but if I found a way to escape the barrier, I can't say I wouldn't be tempted to leave for another, less fucked up plane. I mean, if I told the right people the method to defeat Scion, isn't that already enough? I have no family and friends here to fight for. I was just a civilian back on my plane, and this isn't supposed to be my fight."

I clenched my fists and trembled. "Heck, even if we won against Scion, how do I know everyone won't just turn against me because I'm from another plane? How could they know that I'm not just an alien hiding in a human body, just as bad as Scion? The future I know where humanity won against Scion, the person who saved the world, she was just a lonely eighteen year old girl, she sacrificed everything she had and still…after the fight, the people she saved betrayed her. They thought she became too powerful, too dangerous. They took away her powers, shot her in the head, and threw her body in the middle of nowhere in an empty world. Is that the fate that awaits us at the end of this road? I don't know if I can be that selfless, fighting for a world that will only fear and hate me," I finished my rant bitterly, not looking at her.

But through Agate, I saw that she was appropriately shocked and was watching me with a look of pity.

"I'm sorry," she said finally, in a quiet voice, after it was clear my rant was over.

I turned to face her. "You of all people shouldn't be sorry, Amelia. Do you know what the first thing I did was once I knew that I was in Brockton Bay?"

"What?"

"I looked for Panacea. You have no idea how relieved I was when I found you. Even though I was a stranger to you, you weren't a stranger to me. You were like a bastion of hope when I felt as though the ground was falling away. You were proof that the things I knew weren't entirely useless, and that with that knowledge, I might survive even though I was essentially still unpowered at that time. I know it must feel like an invasion of your privacy, but it was like a lifeline to me."

"But…why? Why me? Was it just because you needed healing?"

"No. I obviously couldn't go to any of the villain gangs. The PRT is dangerous and corrupt, and they also have protocols for dealing with interdimensional travelers that wouldn't be good for my health. Although I knew of Skitter too, she doesn't trust anyone, and certainly wouldn't have teamed up with me if you hadn't been there when we met her and revealed yourself as Panacea. You were the best, and really, the only choice, the only person who would help me and who I could trust with the knowledge of what lies ahead. I didn't expect things to turn out so badly with the Dallons, but I knew that you would be willing to help me eventually once you heard my story, despite all your own personal troubles. And I was right. So thank you," I finished with a smile.

She looked away and then to the ground. "You helped me too, Kaleidus. These past few days away from Carol haven't been so bad. Even though I can't see Vicky anymore, I feel…freer. And now that there's someone who I can talk to who knows about my secret…it's like a huge weight off my shoulders."

"I'm glad, then."

We spent a few more minutes simply standing there in amicable silence.

"There is one more thing I want to show you. Come."


	27. Volition 3-5

**Volition 3.5**

I led Amelia to the cave where I was keeping Coil prisoner. I had thought long and hard about what to do, and in the end I decided that there was no way to keep this a secret for long, if I wanted to take over Coil's organization without making the girls suspicious of me.

I had already told them about Calvert being Coil, and about his power, after all. As long as I kept Coil prisoner, Thomas Calvert would be missing, and the PRT would have records of it. Even if I orchestrated a plan to capture a "Coil", using his body double, the lack of a Corona Pollentia would easily give him away.

The biggest problem was that the mere act of successfully taking over Coil's organization would be suspicious, if the girls believed that the real Coil was still missing or at large.

My mysterious past was already suspicious enough, and without further evidence that Calvert was in fact Coil, the girls might start wondering if _I_ had been Coil the whole time.

Taylor might even use her bugs to track my movements if she thought something was up. That would make things very difficult for me. If I let Amelia make relay bugs for her, I would never be able to do anything without her notice.

I brought Amelia in front of the crate that was Coil's cage, and opened it, revealing the unconscious body of Calvert.

"What the…? A body?" Amelia took a step back in alarm.

"Calm down, he's alive, just unconscious. This man is Coil, also known as Thomas Calvert. Yesterday when I was spying on him, I deduced that he was at his base in both of his timelines, and I had just developed my portal ability, allowing me to strike directly at him when he was vulnerable. The chance was too good to pass up, so I took it," I said.

"Are you sure this is Coil? Sorry, I'm not doubting you. It's just…this is too sudden. Where is his costume?" Amelia asked.

I grabbed a box from nearby and opened it to reveal Coil's costume, which I had neatly folded.

"After I captured him last night, I used his costume to pretend to be Coil, allowing me to start subverting some of his subordinates, who never knew who the man behind the mask was. As for checking whether he's really Coil…why don't we wake him up and ask? You can detect whether he's lying or not."

And so I moved Coil out of the crate and removed his gag, but keeping his blindfold and restraints on.

I equipped an electronic voice changer before beginning the interrogation.

Amelia touched his skin, and he woke up with a jolt.

"Hello, human," I said in a warped voice.

"Hello, who am I speaking—"

I ignored him and continued. "I will toss coin. You tell heads or tails. Answer wrong, die, understand?"

Then I tossed a coin as I said, and it landed on heads.

"Wait—surely it isn't necessary to test my luck? I am willing to cooperate with you."

"Answer correctly, you cooperate. Wrong, then not right human, worthless. Heads or tails? Answer, three seconds or die," I said, touching a pistol to his forehead. "Three—"

"Heads!" He answered, with a hint of panic now.

"Correct. Now I toss again."

I tossed it, and again the coin landed on heads.

"Correct. Again."

"Tails."

"Correct, again."

"Heads."

"Correct, again!"

"Tails."

"Good. Pass, you have," I declared, and gave a meaningful glance to Amelia, who nodded. The point of this test was twofold. His power would allow him to guess both heads and tails at the same time, so it would prove that he was Coil, with the timeline splitting power. Additionally, it would force him to close off any other timelines he had going, and get stuck in this one.

Based on my original plan when capturing him, I should have captured him in both of his timelines, and he might not have shut either of them off, since neither was a safe timeline. From his perspective, if I suddenly woke him up in this timeline, but didn't wake him up in the other one, it would make sense to keep both timelines open as long as possible, to get information about me during the interrogation in this timeline that he could then close and use to deal with me in the other timeline.

"If you are satisfied, may I know who I am speaking with?" Coil asked coolly.

I removed the gun from his head.

"I am Erkshminialhhathrr, the Light-Eclipsing-Nova-Vividly-Echoes, in your tongue. Questions, I have many," I said. "Answer, and live."

"If you would remove my restraints, I would be happy to speak with you and answer your questions in a civilized discussion."

" _Volshmhaar!_ " I yelled and punched him. "You eat civilization me? We eat stars' feces for ten thousand years! You cannot eat monkeys!"

Amelia stifled a choke, and looked at me as if I had gone crazy.

I winked back at her and put a finger to my mouth.

"I'm…sorry? There must be a misunderstanding, I mean no insult," Coil said, after recovering from being punched.

"Abggddarshha? Mnuoklklafshm gu mnuotenaiarongg. You, wait," I said, then walked away for a bit, and came back after half a minute.

"Damn translator. It is fixed now. I have questions for you, human," I said.

"Ah, as I was saying, if you would remove my restraints, I would be happy to answer your questions in a civilized manner," Coil repeated himself.

"No. You will answer my questions or die. We have noticed that you have sent agents to monitor the human child known as Dinah Alcott. What is your intention towards her?"

"Dinah? I believe she has the power to see the future. I am interested in her power," he answered honestly. I expected him to try lying first…but I suppose he must be using his power right now and lied in the other timeline.

"You answer truthfully, but not completely. What do you intend to do with her?"

"Ah, I do have some plans for her, but they are not certain yet—" Coil started, then I punched him again.

"Do not stall! I know you are using the parasitic crystalloid's ability to try different answers. It will not work."

"My apologies. I had been planning to persuade Dinah to join my cause," he said.

"And how would you have _persuaded_ her?" I pressed.

He was silent for a moment. "Do you have some special interest in her? I can agree to stay away from her."

I put the gun back to his head. "Answer the question! How would you have persuaded her?"

"I would have given her drugs," he finally revealed.

I glanced at Amelia, whose face had darkened ominously upon hearing Coil's answer.

"Pathetic human!" I boomed. "So you would have imprisoned and forced her to become addicted to drugs, using her addiction to make her do your bidding! You wanted to enslave her? Foolish! _Volshhar!_ She is the future vessel of Heaven-Touching-Shadow-Winged-Divine! The crystalloid parasites do not have the power to see the future, only the Chosen of the Star Spirits! She shall be a part of the Great Journey, not your human quibbles! Repent in darkness while the High Priests decide what to do with you!" I ranted like a fanatic, then gave Amelia a signal.

Coil fall back unconscious, and we stuffed him back into the crate.

"There you have it. Despicable, isn't he? There's no line too low for him to sink to," I said.

Amelia continued staring at the crate we were keeping Coil in. "Yeah…"

"You know, his power is pretty damn useful. Think we should give him a taste of his own medicine, make him work for us? With your powers, it shouldn't be too hard to brainwash him," I said nonchalantly.

"W-what the fuck! I'm not going to brainwash anyone!"

"Well, we can't release him or send him to the PRT, either. He's too dangerous for that. Seems like a bit of a waste to just kill him," I said with a grin.

"That's not funny, Kaleidus! I'm seriously not going to brainwash anyone. It's just wrong," she protested.

"Even if _he_ would have been willing to brainwash people?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Is it so bad to turn a force of evil into a force of good? We don't necessarily even need to alter his brain directly, if you're still uptight about that rule. He can be conditioned and re-educated slowly, or we can make a kill-switch of sorts."

"Ugh, stop, you're creeping me out now! No brainwashing!" She blocked off her ears and stormed off.

I laughed loudly as she ran off.

I knew she wouldn't be willing to do it, but it was worth a shot. There were still other methods I could try to make Coil my slave.


	28. Volition 3-6

**Volition 3.6**

After that, we went back to the warehouse but she gave me the silent treatment. She continued working on our new armoured costumes while ignoring me.

"Don't be like that Amelia, it was just a joke."

"I know," she said.

"Then why the long face?"

She didn't answer me.

I left the warehouse and bought some ice cream.

When I got back she was sitting down despondently on a crate, not doing anything.

I put an ice cream cone in front of her. "Here, have some of this. You'll feel better."

She glanced at the cone, then gave me an insulted look. "I'm not a little kid!"

"I know," I said, in a mirror of her words and tone to me.

She turned her head away.

I kept the ice cream cone where it is, in front of her, and started eating my own cone. "Haven't had one of these in a long time. It's really good."

After a while, I finished my cone. "I guess I'll have another one then," I said, and retracted the cone I had in front of her, bringing it towards my own mouth.

She stood up with her hand swept out and grabbed the cone as she gave me a fierce glare. I let go and she started eating the ice cream.

"Listen, I won't ever make you use your powers on the brain if you really don't want to. But working on brains is very dangerous if you don't get any practice. If an enemy Master brainwashes one of us, I would hope you could undo it. I don't want to see you fall apart because you made a mistake at a critical moment."

"You're…not afraid that I'll do more than just undo it? Change a little extra while I fix you?"

"I've known you could affect the brain all this time and still let you heal me," I said, looking at her seriously.

"Why do you trust me so much?"

I watched her pained expression with bits of ice cream surrounding her lips, and considered what to say. Her reaction to my joke about brainwashing Coil seemed to be going in a different direction than I initially expected. I thought she might be suspicious and angry that I might want her to do something reprehensible, sulking that I wasn't who she thought I was.

"You've been nothing but good to me, so why shouldn't I trust you? Besides, like I said, I sought you out specifically because I knew what kind of person you are."

"But I'm not a good person, not really. I'm not sure I really would have helped you if I'd had a choice, if things didn't blow up at home. I stopped caring about the injured and sick a long time ago. Healing was just a chore, something I made myself do because people wouldn't understand if I stopped. I'm—I'm heartless, aren't I? I'm so fucked up."

"You're good enough for me."

"But…! Why? I just…don't understand!"

But in reality, she wasn't _really_ upset over the wrongness of brainwashing somebody, of destroying a person's personality or changing someone's personhood.

She was upset that she didn't care more about it.

She was afraid of being unable to stop herself from doing much more, once she started, unable to resist doing the things she secretly wanted to do, deep down.

Just like that creepy tree-human thing that she used to make new costumes, it didn't bother her at all, to the point where she didn't even notice it.

And mixed with all of that self-hate was a fear of losing the one person she still had to keep the loneliness at bay. Me.

"You still don't get it?" I said in a soft voice. "I've seen how bad things can get. I've seen what sorts of terrible things you can do when you lose control. I've seen you at your absolute lowest point, when your worst fears came true. When you used your powers on Vicky."

Her face went white.

"When, in a moment of weakness, after Bonesaw paid you a visit and forced you to break all of your rules, you were desperate and alone and you just wanted to disappear, but Vicky didn't let you. When you let yourself just one little indulgence before the end, and made her love you the way you love her."

She flinched. The unfinished ice cream cone fell out of her hands, hitting the ground with a splat.

She protested weakly. "I-I w-wouldn't do that!"

"You wouldn't. You wanted to fix it right away, only she didn't let you. She was afraid that you'd mess up her mind even more and ran away."

"Stop! I don't want to hear this!" She shut her eyes and covered her eyes.

I moved closer and loomed over her trembling self.

"Then, she was catastrophically injured. You saved her life, but there was so much damage, you needed more time and new biomass to fix her. You fixed her body, but not her mind because you knew she'd fight you if you fixed her mind first. It was done and you were ready to say goodbye. But you wanted to see her smile again. To have someone hug you before you left forever. Victoria wouldn't remember, it was just a way for you to get closure."

"N-no, don't say anymore, please!" She stumbled backwards, then hit the crate behind her, and fell down. The crate, being empty, was pushed back while she hit the ground.

"You wanted her to be happy. You could tweak, adjust, change things to make her better. You had all this leftover material to use, from the healing cocoon you made for her. So you start making her better. When you're done, you start undoing everything, all of the physical and mental changes. But you're so _tired_ , so _scared_ , so _lonely_ , you need take a break first."

I could hear her beginning to hyperventilate as I surreptitiously switched my words to the present tense.

"You change more things. More things you have to fix. Days pass. She's a giant mess of spilling flesh now and twisting curves now."

She curled up into a ball and made a strangled cry.

"You lose track. You don't remember what she was supposed to look like. You can't change her back."

I fell silent, observing her sniffling and crying. It occurred to me that if I wanted to, I had the means to break her completely. More so than Jack Slash and Bonesaw even, because they were known monsters and I was somebody she trusted.

The past few days she had been going with the flow, but she had already been teetering on the precipice the moment she decided to break her rules and run away. I was her last hope, someone that could tell her what to do so that she didn't have to think about it and drown in all her self-hatred and guilt.

But I wasn't Jack Slash. Unlike that madman who simply wanted sadistic entertainment, I had goals.

I bent down and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her head to my chest.

"Don't touch me!" She struggled against me, but I was fully clothed and carefully avoided letting her touch my exposed face.

"It's not your fault," I said in a soothing voice. She continued struggling, and I pushed on.

"It was Vicky's aura and your shard sabotaging you!" I said in a strong voice.

She stopped struggling. "W-what?' She asked in a quiet whisper.

"Don't you see? It was never your fault. Vicky's aura was pressuring you for years. Then, at your lowest point, your shard took advantage! It took away your ability to fix her! It took control of you, and made you change Vicky into an echo of the Entity that died! It wasn't your fault! It was Vicky's aura and your shard that was at fault, even if the deed was done by your hand! There's a monster hiding inside of you, giving you dark thoughts pretending to be your own, and you've been holding it back all this time!"

Her eyes finally found mine and I saw the horror etched in them.

"But it hasn't happened yet. It doesn't have to be that way. I'm here now and I won't let you fall apart like that again!"

There was a glimmer of hope in her expression again.

"So, don't worry. Don't blame yourself. Blame your shard. Blame Vicky's aura. You're already on a different path. You're in control of yourself now."

"But…what if…" She whispered, gripping tightly onto my coat instead of fighting me now.

"But nothing. You don't have to fight this alone. I'll be with you every step of way. I've already seen you at your worst and I'm still here. We're a team and we're in this together now. When you lose your way, I'll hold your hand and guide you. When you fall apart, I'll gather the pieces and put you back together. When you can't hold back the monster inside anymore, I'll bear the burden of your sins with you."

I grabbed her hand that was clutching at my coat with my own left hand, skin exposed.

She flinched and panicked, trying to pull away, but my grip was iron. "Look, you are in control Amelia Claire Lavere! You're on a different, better path now! You have escaped the chains binding you at the Dallons! You are the master of your own power now, not the other way around! You—"

I choked and fell forward, eyes bulging with a shocked look, and collapsed on top of her, twitching spastically.

"Kaleidus!"

"Oh god, oh god, what did I do? Kaleidus!" She shook my body and channeled her power into me. From her hands her power traveled into my nervous system, forcibly calming down the randomly firing signals.

A massive headache struck me as the feedback from the nerve signals wound back up into my brain. But my seizure didn't stop, instead it grew worse and I started foaming at the mouth.

"A-am I losing control? Why can't I fix this?" She said to herself in fearful, panicky tones.

I started hallucinating. A kaleidoscopic swirl in my mind—it shattered into a trillion reflective mirrors —the crack of thunder and fire burning through my veins—a white hot rod sinking into the base of my neck—my muscles contracted unnaturally and tore themselves, blood vessels popping everywhere, and my whole vision was red.

"This can't be happening!" Amelia cried with tears falling down her cheeks.

My heart constricted oddly and cells began dying en masse. My skin and bones cracked and blood exploded outwards like a fountain.

I heard a shrill scream before my body froze completely and I felt another white hot rod sinking into the base of my neck—

[-]

—saw Amelia holding my unmoving body in a cocoon.

It was a strange sensation, being disassociated from my body, and all of its sensations. I floated around as if being controlled by something else.

' _Kaleidus, I can't do this anymore, you might actually die from this!'_ Agate thought in a painful tone to me.

I wanted to tell her that I had to be harder on myself than anybody else, but for some reason that wasn't working.

My thoughts felt sluggish, barely coherent even to myself. A white hot rod sank—

' _Kaleidus! Oh no!_ ' Agate's voice came into my mind one last time before an excruciating pain—

[-]

I gasped and opened my eyes.

"Oh thank god, Kaleidus!" Amelia's tearful and bloody face loomed over mine, the walls of the cocoon covering the rest of my vision.

"Amelia…" I said weakly. She buried herself into my neck and sobbed.

"I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay, Amelia, everything's fine. I'm fine now."

"No, it's not! I lost control and you almost died!" Her voice was muffled and distorted by sniffing.

I stroked her hair slowly. "But I'm fine now. I knew you would come through for me in the end. It's like I said, you're on a different, better path now. You've broken through and reclaimed control."

The distraught girl simply continued to cry on me.

' _Kaleidus, please don't ever make me do that again!_ '

' _Sorry, Agate. I'll try not to. That was pretty freaky even for me,'_ I thought back.

I had asked Agate to use her ability to send signals to my brain in an offensive way, instead of sending me her thoughts and senses to me, followed up by inappropriate Reinforcement. She couldn't use the actual Reinforcement spell, but I knew generally how it was supposed to work, in particular the part that adding too much prana to an object would destroy it.

Thus, I had her repeatedly attempt to "Reinforce" my body without the proper spellwork, resulting in my body destroying itself. My brain didn't get any "Reinforcement" of course, otherwise I might have just died right away without Amelia being able to save me.

Still, it was a very risky, potentially deadly, or even _torturous_ , course of action. But to be a magus is to walk with death. If there was anything I wouldn't ever forget about the Fate universe, that had to be it.

I continued to whisper reassurances to Amelia for a long time, until eventually she lifted her head when her tears were dry. She looked at me with an expression that looked like total despair.

"I'm sorry," she said monotonously.

' _Kaleidus!_ '

There was a kaleidoscopic swirl in my mind—it shattered into a trillion reflective mirrors—

—darkness came over me, my consciousness slipping away—

—the crack of thunder and fire burning through my veins—a white hot rod that was in the base of my neck lit up again—

—I woke up again and saw Amelia running for the door with her head hanging low.

—and we _moved_.

— _Energy surged through me like an unstoppable torrent being forced through a single tiny straw—_

I crossed the gap in what seemed like an instant, running with truly Reinforced legs and our combined prana racing through our new artificial magic circuit converted from nerves _._

Our body was incomparably stronger—far too much to be the result of a shoddy Reinforcement.

We knew instinctually that this was Amelia's parting gift, making us superhuman before disappearing forever.

But how could we let her go?

Our arms closed in and wrapped around her from behind.

"Wha—"

"Did you forget what I told you already?" I spoke loudly with a hint of anger. "When you lose your way, I'll hold your hand and guide you. When you fall apart, I'll gather the pieces and put you back together. When you can't hold back the monster inside anymore, I'll bear the burden of your sins with you! You think you can just _give up_ and decide to disappear on your own?"

"K-Kaleidus? How?" She said. I couldn't see her expression from behind her, but I knew it must have been shocked.

My voice kept rising. "People don't die when they're killed! They die when they lose their _will_ to keep going! I promised that I would be with you every step of the way, do you think I'll let myself die that easily? You weren't the only one fighting to revive me back then! We were fighting together! That's why I came back! That's why I'll continue to come back whether you like it or not! Compared to death, how could a little sleep keep me down? If you want me to let go of you, then you'll have to kill me!"

After that, there was only the sound of our heavy breathing.

A few minutes later, she leaned back and sank into my hug.

"Sorry..."

"Stop apologizing already!" I replied in an annoyed tone.

"…then, thank you…."

"Are you going to try to run away again?"

"No," she said softly. I relaxed my grip on her and turned her around to face me.

"Why are you still crying, then?"

"I'm not!" She wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"Yes you are. I can still hear your sniffs," I said.

"That's 'cause…I'm…happy!"

O O O


	29. Volition 3-7

**Volition 3.7**

After Amelia was calmed down, I went to the bank to pick up our new cards, then I made arrangements to rent a higher quality apartment, and various equipment/furniture to set up a livable area on Earth M. I also acquired some fake—but legally legitimate—IDs and drivers' licenses.

In between, I thought about the situation with Amelia and what I had gained.

Thanks to Amelia's efforts at healing me, I had managed to successfully form a single artificial magic circuit without dying. So now I actually had access to prana, and could theoretically use some magecraft. This wasn't a feat I could simply repeat to gain more circuits however.

Magic Circuits were organs of the soul, and the physical expression of it in the body was merely temporary. Normal circuits could be activated at any time, but artificial ones involved a process of remaking the physical circuit each time. This conversion of nerves to circuits was a potentially fatal endeavour, and the character Shirou Emiya who used this method only survived because he had a powerful healing item that was still active when he first started. Amelia's healing substituted in my case.

However, the process would leave an imprint on the soul, making it easier each time afterwards, which is why I could do it now with some help from Agate somewhat safely.

But if I tried to add more circuits this way, my soul itself might start sustaining damage, and that would very bad, because Amelia couldn't heal that. I didn't think she could even perceive prana or the artificial circuit's physical expression either.

Self-reinforcement was the first spell I obtained. That was again thanks to Amelia's continuous healing which allowed Agate to experiment on my body until it worked. My reinforcement was very weak though, and currently gave me only about a ten percent boost.

Fortunately, my body itself had been substantially upgraded by Amelia, so that I was already several times stronger and faster than unpowered humans, so even a ten percent boost was nothing to scoff at. Even more important was that Reinforcement was a conceptual thing, not a mechanical thing. It made my body parts "better", and that included things like the regeneration factor Amelia had added to my body.

With this spell and my new ability to cast minor magecraft, there were many new things I could do, and I was eager to start learning, but it would have to wait a bit until I took care of some other things today.

Eventually Taylor contacted me in the late afternoon, and we all met at the warehouse.

"So these are the costumes you've been working on?" She asked. Amelia had already finished most of it, so it obviously looked like armour now instead of the easily misunderstood thing from before.

"It's all Amelia's work, I'm just watching," I said.

"Your spider silk costume is really high quality. I thought we should get something to match yours," Amelia said, smiling.

After that, Taylor asked some more questions about how Amelia was making the costumes, and decided to ask her to modify her own costume as well for the higher defensive quality of the materials Amelia made.

"So, what are we going to do today? Should we start planning patrol routes?" Taylor asked.

"First, I have some things I'd like to show you, and some very good news to tell you…" With a fluid motion, Agate was in my hand and I opened a portal to Earth M.

While Taylor was stunned at seeing the portal, I said, "This is an ability I developed yesterday. It lets me create portals to alternate worlds like Aleph, or this one, if I have a reference point for it. I've named the world on the other side Earth M."

Then I walked through and the girls followed.

"You just…develop abilities?" Taylor asked.

"Well, I told you before that my powers don't come from the shards. To be more precise, what I use is magic and when I develop new abilities it's really more like learning new spells," I asserted confidently.

I could see both Taylor about to protest, but I put up a hand to stop her.

"I know you think magic doesn't exist. It doesn't exist on this plane of existence. But I'm from outside of it, as I mentioned before. There are planes where magic is real. This here is a magic wand that channels my magical abilities," I said, raising up Agate for them to see.

"Isn't that just Tinkertech…?" Taylor muttered.

' _I'm sorry I called her smart before! What an idiot!_ ' Agate thought to me, offended at being called Tinkertech. ' _Kaleidus, can I talk some sense into her? Please?'_

' _Sorry, but I'd rather keep your sentience a secret. Your ability to act on your own is a hidden ace I'd like to keep up my sleeve just in case. You know why. The more people that know about you, the higher the chance of the one card we have to play against_ that person _failing._ '

' _Aww….'_

' _I'm pretty sure Amelia thought you were Tinkertech too though, why weren't you upset about it then?'_

' _Well, she didn't say it out loud! And what she did say aloud was kind of right. I_ did _get some of Professor Haywire's stuff in a sense, even if indirectly, because I analyzed the portal the Simurgh opened using his tech.'_

"Just ignore his delusions. He thinks he's a magical alien," Amelia said with a smirk.

"Oh come on, I was just messing around before, I'm serious about my powers being magic though. How else can I simply develop more abilities?" I said.

"Magical alien?" Taylor asked Amelia with curiosity in her eyes.

"I'll tell you later," said Amelia.

"Ahem. Anyways, the point is, by using another portal, I can go back to Earth M in a different spot, as long as I've set a marker there beforehand. I can do so remotely if I'm using sense projection. As you can probably imagine, there are many useful applications for this kind of long range transport ability," I said.

Taylor nodded. "Teleportation is a rare power on its own, but alternate universe portals are even rarer. Except for Professor Haywire, no other known capes can do it. At the very least, we would be able to go directly to the enemy when they're least expecting it, and retreat without a trace."

I smiled widely. "That's exactly it! Although my portals last for at least 21 minutes each, so it's not that useful for retreating yet, until I improve them further. This brings me to the next thing I wanted to show you."

With that, I brought them to Coil.

Then I explained how I spied on Coil and captured him, how I stole his money, found out about Faultline's Crew being hired, and finally how Amelia and I interrogated Coil, confirming that he intended to abduct and drug Dinah to use her powers.

Taylor gave several looks of shock and admiration as I explained it all. With Amelia already in the know, and having interrogated Coil about Dinah, it seemed that Taylor didn't suspect anything. This was the very reason I decided to interrogate him with Amelia without Taylor. I didn't want Taylor to impulsively ask Coil if he'd been the one to set Shadow Stalker on her dad.

Plus, I could also just claim that I found files in Coil's base confirming that he was the one who orchestrated it…the important thing was that Coil not be given the chance to claim innocence while Amelia was touching him.

Finally, at the end of it, Taylor asked, "What are we going to do with him?"

"He is too dangerous for us to hand over to the PRT. He is slippery enough that there's no hard proof of his having been Coil other than our word against his, and Armsmaster's lie detector wouldn't be accepted in court anyway. With his power being undetectable as well, and his connections in the PRT…handing him over would probably be the same as letting him go free." I said, but didn't elaborate further.

After a moment, when neither Amelia nor I said anything, Taylor spoke up again. "Should we…" she swallowed nervously, "…kill him?"

"He was going to drug and enslave an innocent child for her Thinker power. Killing him would be well justified, both for his crimes and for the threat he poses. But conversely, he is dangerous because he has an extremely powerful Thinker power himself that essentially allows him to erase unwanted outcomes and test whatever he wants with no consequences…if we could get access to it somehow or make him work for us…Although it would be risky to trust that he'd collapse the right timeline for anything critical, his power has some very useful applications in some situations that could be manageable," I said. "We just need a way to make him cooperate."

I saw Taylor's expression turn thoughtful. "The power to erase unwanted outcomes…" she murmured with a glint in her eyes.

Amelia noticed Taylor's look and glanced at me, but said nothing.

"What if we threatened him the way you did for his interrogation? When we need him to split the timeline, we don't tell him anything about what we're doing, except that we'll kill him in the timeline we don't want to keep." Taylor said.

"That's not a bad idea and we can certainly try it. Given the nature of his power, we would have to be committed to follow through on our threat through…which is why my interrogation earlier worked," I said.

They both looked at me with slightly widened eyes, as if just realizing that I must have actually killed Coil in any alternate timelines he tried during the interrogation.

"Regardless, before we decide what to do with him, I'd like to keep him alive for at least a while longer, at least until I finish taking over his resources. To do that I need to get some more information out of him." I said.

They both nodded with a sombre mood.

O O O

After that, we went to have a luxurious celebratory dinner. After chatting about some of the funnier PHO comments on my post yesterday, we discussed plans for the immediate future.

"We've accomplished a lot in a very short time, but that's mostly been good tactics and information advantage. The truth is, we're pretty weak right now compared to any of the other cape groups in the city," I said.

"We don't have any heavy hitters," said Taylor.

"That's right. We've had major tactical advantages that allowed us to choose when and how to fight against Lung, Oni Lee, and Coil, but if we start patrolling and fighting head to head against the villains on their terms, the odds are stacked against us."

The girls nodded at my analysis.

"Even with Coil defeated, Faultline isn't going to let us off that easily. Coil convinced her that we might be related to the conspiracy group and Case 53s. With Coil gone, she might be more cautious, but she'll definitely come for us at some point as she has a personal interest in that. The Undersiders won't be a threat anymore, but nor will I be able to replace Coil as their secret boss without Tattletale noticing something amiss. In the short term, our biggest challenges are Bakuda, and the E88."

"What about Canary?" Taylor asked.

"I have an idea I am working on in regards to that. I need to run a few more tests and investigate, but if things work the way I think they will, it could be much easier than I first thought. Just leave that to me for now."

"So, I get why the E88 is a big challenge with so many capes, but is Bakuda really that big of a threat by herself? As long as we keep our distance and know where she is, we can just use my bugs to knock her out with sedative without her noticing, just like with Shadow Stalker," said Taylor.

"You're not wrong. The problem comes if we go out on patrol, then she comes to us with bombs. We're pretty squishy, and even if we weren't, she has bombs that can fuck up Endbringers. This applies to most other villains too—like I said before, as long as we're in the shadows and pick our fights, we have a huge advantage, but as soon as we are out in the open trying to protect civilians, we have a problem."

"You don't want us to go out on patrol?" asked Amelia.

"I think I understand. Instead of passively patrolling, you want to us to attack the villains on our own terms," said Taylor. "But we're heroes, if civilians are in danger, we can't just sit by and do nothing."

"I agree. The solution to this is simple. If we're not strong enough, we need to power up until we are." I said with a devious smile. "And in the mean time, I can leverage Coil's resources to get us the information we need to go on the offensive."

O O O

After the dinner, I opened another portal for the girls to go to Earth M to train and experiment, with some suggestions I gave them on what to work on. The portal itself was made to last for five hours so they could come back to Bet at any time without my help.

As for myself, I portaled into Calvert's civilian residence and swept it for useful things. The PRT would probably comb it themselves after a few days once it was obvious that Calvert had gone missing, so I had to beat them to it.

Unfortunately my search didn't turn up anything particularly useful. It was a completely ordinary house, as far as I could tell, except for some PRT-issue weapons and armour. To confuse the PRT, however, I packed up and took many of his belongings to make it look like he left voluntarily, travelling somewhere.

After that, I continued the work of slowly taking over Coil's resources and learning about his organization. This time, I contacted Creep and followed all of the same procedures Coil took to enter his base.

O O O


	30. Volition 3-8

**Volition 3.8**

Power. That was what it all came down to.

I knew that Amelia and Taylor would be a fearsome combination, but it would take time to persuade them to unlock their full potential.

I guessed that she had probably used her power on my brain directly for a bit during my little episode, but she still had to be eased—pressured—into doing more.

While they were off training, I was off to power up myself as well.

The first order of business was some more experimentation with Agate.

At night, Agate went to observe Labyrinth.

I also sent Faultline a message, cancelling the job from Coil. She was suspicious about it, and obviously wouldn't stop investigating, but it would at least delay her a bit, in case Coil had set a trap for her. She would have to wary about why Coil gave her the info on Polychromic, then immediately cancelled the job, as if baiting her.

On Wednesday morning, I was in Earth M as well, training with Agate.

Modifying her levitation and flight spells to include me, as long as I was touching her, was a fairly simple affair. We just didn't do it earlier because there we needed an open yet private space to develop it, and because last week it had been enough to just be able to grab onto her and let her drag me away in an emergency.

Now though, I would have more fine control, and it would be much safer, so we could go higher in the air.

I couldn't fly by myself though. This spell was a massive prana drain, and it got a lot worse with extra mass. I supposed that this was why normal Fate magi didn't generally fly from what I remembered, or if they did, they didn't levitate directly but instead would use something else like artificial wings. Agate simply had vast quantities of prana, so I could only rely on her for this. My single artificial circuit couldn't channel enough prana even if Agate shared her prana with me, so she had to be the one to cast.

Next was practicing the use of various light effects and projecting holograms. Using her mana offensively was not at all practical without a spell template, but she was capable of glittering, glowing, etc.

I had already used such a capability to make the act of opening portals more showy, and this was an extension of that. I wasn't being vain—there were many uses to this, and even the small act of grabbing onto Agate and shooting a beam of light to open a portal had the purpose of making people think we needed the movement to open portals, which we actually didn't. It was the same reason I put two fingers to my forehead when using my "sense projection" ability in front of Amelia and Taylor, back during the fight against Oni Lee.

We also tried to Reinforce other objects, which went decently well, and the two other basic spells of Structural Grasp and Gradation Air.

Gradation Air was a complete bust, but we had some success with Structural Grasp. Agate's various sensor programs did something fairly similar to Structural Grasp, which allowed the caster to touch an object to perceive a visualization of its internal structure, so she eventually created a massively dumbed down version for me to use that was functionally similar to the Structural Grasp I knew of, and I started practicing that.

I didn't know if my bootleg Reinforcement and Structural Grasp was actually how Fate magi cast those spells, but they would certainly come in handy in the future. They also had great synergy. The better one could perceive the structural "gaps" that needed reinforcement, the better the Reinforcement could be without destroying whatever was being reinforced.

After that came the very dangerous matter of attempting to bring organic matter into agatespace.

Phasing into agatespace was actually much powerful than Wormvoid, if we could do it, since other capes couldn't reach us there. In Wormvoid, some capes like Scrub might have been able to affect us still.

However, it was a failure. I had thought it wouldn't be tough, seeing as we could travel through Kaleidospace safely, but Agate informed me that it didn't work like that.

The Pathways she made were called that because there was a trick to it. We didn't actually go through Kaleidospace like Planeswalkers do. Not even Zelretch managed to figure out how to survive in Primordial Chaos.

What we did instead was "borrow" a part of Creation Mystery to slingshot ourselves into other realities, tunneling through Kaleidospace, then allowing the chosen alternate reality cluster's Creation Mystery to "grab on" to us. The tunnel formed for only an infinitesimal amount of time, and within the tunnel there was no Primordial Chaos energy. This method used the Second Magic not only as a Magic, but also as a partial path to the Root, in order to access a piece of the Creation Mystery.

I wasn't sure that it made any sense to me, but the deeper mechanics were far too complicated for me to dwell on. But I understood, at least, that the Alternate Reality Manipulation Protocol: User Travel, as Agate called it, was not something that could be used willy-nilly, or repeatedly, requiring Agate to build up a major reserve of power that wasn't mana, but some kind of special energy needed to access the Creation Mystery. The reason that we were able to leave my Earth so quickly after she arrived with Zelretch was because they had stocked up beforehand.

And none of that was helpful for trying to phase into agatespace. Agate could only withstand it for limited periods of time herself, being technically non-living and soulless, yet sentient.

After wasting some time with that, we worked on developing some other spells that shared steps or commonalities with some of things Agate was already able to do.

There weren't many of those, and what we developed ended up being little more than small tricks, but anything was better than nothing.

Between the training I reviewed the priorities and plans I set for myself early on when I arrived on Earth Bet.

As I already had some strong allies and a decent amount of resources, I looked at the second priority, Tinkertech.

Coil's men already had laser attachments, but I had other things in mind.

Leet was easily hired, though it would take some time to figure out what he could make that was useful to me, and wouldn't fail. Regarding his shard's sabotage, I was very concerned with the possibility that his teleporter that he made with Chariot failed in a way that was deliberate and targeted. If I relied on something like that for a critical operation, I could turn out like canon Coil.

It was an open question whether the shard continued to have some influence over the Tinkertech after it was originally made—and that would be dangerous for me.

Chariot was already secretly in Coil's employ, so I could easily get some things from him. His Tinker specialty of movement could be very useful, depending on its limitations. He couldn't create teleportation or portal devices on his own, unfortunately. In the canon he needed to work with Leet to make the teleporter based off of Trickster's swapping ability, and even then it was susceptible to Leet's failures.

Truthfully though, despite their potential uses, I didn't think much of them.

Most Tinkers were limited in a fundamental way.

They couldn't go exponential by themselves, and they couldn't be easily used to acquire anything that _would_ allow for exponential growth.

I wasn't like Coil, only trying to take over Brockton Bay slowly. He could be satisfied getting any cape on his payroll, because each one meant a bit more firepower he had access to.

What would a few extra capes mean to me? Even if I hired the Travelers, for example, unless I could take advantage of Noelle's cloning powers somehow, the rest of them were only good for fighting a few more capes at a time.

I turned my attention to Toybox next.

They were a private group of seven Tinkers who pool resources and sold their products to others. Their things didn't come cheap. I had a vague understanding of their capabilities from Coil's files.

 _Pyrotechnical, specialty in flames, special effects, and guns._

 _Bauble, glassworking tools and could turn inorganic matter to glass._

I couldn't think of anything in particular I wanted from these two.

 _Toy Soldier, massive power suit._

 _Glace, cryogenics and stasis._

These two were fairly situational. Toy Soldier wore a power suit the size of a building, but it was unclear how much money and resources it would take to commission another powersuit of that size. He mostly sold select powersuit components and enlarged weaponry that could be mounted on big vehicles, but those were incredibly expensive, with even the cheapest things having a price tag over a million.

Glace's cryogenics could be useful for preserving parahuman brains I didn't feel like keeping on life support, but might see a future use for. It could potentially also decrease the cost of sustenance upkeep for Amelia's future creations.

 _Dodge, makes devices that generate stable pocket dimensions._

 _Cranial, neurological tech. Sells memories and skills._

 _Big Rig, builds drones that builds other things, especially buildings._

These three…I had ideas for. Big Rig, especially. Unfortunately his was the most ridiculously expensive. If I bought anything from him, I'd be out of funds in short order, so I had to be very careful.

Dodge was one of the Tinkers I initially really wanted tech from, but now that I could access parallel earths that almost nobody else could, it wasn't such a big deal. The advantage of his pocket dimensions being possibly hidden from Cauldron didn't seem like it was enough of an incremental step up to be throwing money at right now. If he could make a mobile inventory for me, that would be worth it…but his pocket dimensions were attached to fixed points in space. His true value lay in letting Agate analyze and learn from how he manipulated dimensions, rather than the products' actual capability. I could buy a cheap and very small pocket dimension for that, and consider trying to buy his plans and schematics if he was willing to sell.

I eventually settled on Cranial. Recording thoughts, memories, skills; draining them; and letting other people have or experience them. That would be _very_ useful, once I combined it with some other things. She only sold the memories and the service of draining memories, but never the devices themselves. I would find a way around that, if a higher price wouldn't persuade her. And that was only her known capabilities—I was certain she could do much more than merely transfer memories.

O O O

Once I contacted Cranial, it was a simple matter to arrange for the purchase of some skills and memories. She was currently in New York, but that was no obstacle for me. I simply had Agate fly over and find a secluded place to open a portal. With her being able to go at 500 miles an hour, New York was close enough to reach very quickly.

I also brought Amelia and Taylor with me.

We skulked over to the designated meeting point. It was a warehouse in an industrial area of the city, closer to the suburbs.

On our way there, Taylor was scouting the inside. "I see Cranial, Pyrotechnical and probably Toy Soldier out in the open. There's four men that look like bodyguards who don't seem to be capes. There's another three actively observing from different vantage points on the second floor railings, and four hidden in crates on the ground," she said.

"Looks like their security isn't too bad," I said.

From the outside, it looked completely normal, and even had a number of cars and trucks parked outside.

We came in civilian attire, disguised, all wearing hoodies and masked. I had contacted Cranial anonymously.

"You ready, A? I'll be counting on you to save me if I get brainwashed," I said suddenly as we were almost at the door.

Amelia took a deep breath and gave me a determined look. "Yeah, I'm ready."

We entered and were led by a guard at the door to an enclosed section of the warehouse. Toy Soldier was in a three metre tall power suit, seemingly shifting heavy items around, setting up might have platforms, mobile walls, and other equipment for an exhibition.

Pyrotechnical was lounging on a couch with her legs on a coffee table in front of her, playing with a flamethrower that shot out jets of flame in different formations. When she saw us, she got up and yelled, "They're here, Cranial!"

The guard left us, and Pyrotechnical beckoned us over to join her at the curtain which was the entrance to the enclosed area.

The curtain was pulled aside and out came our host. Cranial was a short woman that wore a lab coat for a costume. Considering that she wasn't actually a wet tinker that did brain surgeries, but rather made devices which affected brain waves, it was a rather odd choice. Her mask was a surgery mask plus a sleek visor, and a helmet that looked like an enlarged brain with metal tubes poking out. All in all, it looked very weird and disconcerting.

"UnskilledNoob?" She asked, looking at the three of us.

"Yup, that's me," I said.

"Which of one of you is getting the treatment?"

"Also me."

After that, she gestured for us to follow inside, and after I handed over $200k through an electronic transfer via the Number Man, told me to sit down on a leather chair in front of a table. The rest of the enclosed area was fairly sparse except for some other electronic equipment I didn't recognize and lots of wiring.

The chair had a number of straps and chains, which I supposed was required for those transactions involving the transfer of very bad memories.

She instructed me to put on a heavy device that covered my head, which was connected by numerous thick wires to a metre tall rectangular box-like metal piece of electronic equipment. She sat on the opposite end of the table with a notebook computer that was also connected to the same metal box.

I removed the glove on my right hand and Amelia held on to my hand while standing next to me.

"What are you doing?" Cranial asked her.

"Just a bit of assurance that nothing extra is being transmitted to my brain," I replied for Amelia.

"Fine. Just don't touch the equipment," said Cranial.

The process took about half an hour, and by the end of it, I had the skill of a master martial artist in mixed martials arts combining jiujitsu, Muay Thai, Wing Chun, and kickboxing.

When it was done, Amelia had a difficult expression on her face, and hesitantly nodded.

' _I don't detect anything wrong either_ ,' said Agate.

With those assurances, we left without any fuss.

O O O


	31. Volition 3-9

**Volition 3.9**

"My dad's getting suspicious," said Taylor.

"You could just tell him…?"

I continued going through the forms I had just learned. Although I had learned the skills, they didn't truly belong to me. Their muscle memory, the balance, the body structure was all different from my actual body. Small things that could be dangerous to me if I didn't practice with my own body. My body right now, after Amelia's enhancements, was substantially faster and stronger than the people whose skills Cranial installed into me. It was easy to accidentally use too much force and become unbalanced, or even more comically, withdraw a heavy punch so fast it came back to hit me.

"It-it's not that easy," she said. Her body tilted, and her swarm of bugs came in to prevent her fall.

"Are you afraid that he won't let you be a hero?" I glanced at her giant beetle that she was practicing how to balance on while midflight.

Its bulbous eyes were staring at me intently.

I persuaded Amelia to make the creature fully self-sustainable, if not sentient. It couldn't reproduce either, just like Atlas in the canon. We also named it Atlas, of course.

But there were also big differences from the canonical Atlas in that it could survive on its own without Taylor and had some more features. It had a basic insect brain, vastly superior visual and auditory senses, tranquilizer breath attack, paralysis venom, and a digestive system that could handle most organic input. Through our Atlas, Taylor could actually see and hear quite clearly, even though she wasn't used to the extra sensory input yet.

Amelia had offered to make relay bugs to expand Taylor's range, and make Atlas double as a relay bug. I kindly advised Taylor against the offer until her range naturally expanded a bit more and she learned to improve her comprehension of insect senses, on account of the mental strain and the risk of going crazy by rushing things. She remembered what it was like during the first week when she first got her power, and accepted my advice.

It would be difficult for me to keep anything secret from her if she covered the whole city in bugs. I knew that this would lock down most of her potential, but it was a difficult decision that I didn't want to jump into, because I could never take it back. I had to be sure of either committing to stay above whatever Taylor's moral bottom line was, or having the ability to persuade Taylor beyond it when appropriate for my purposes.

"No, that's not it. I was a little worried about it before, but now we have the resources to be a great team. $30 million. I couldn't even imagine having that kind of money before. We'd be better funded than the Wards, even." she said.

"Then what's the problem?"

"Just, I don't know how to bring it up, you know? I've barely talked to him in so long. I met with the police again yesterday at school, with my dad and the vice-principal. I showed them all my evidence this time, and it came out that Emma was one of the bullies. He…didn't take it well. I've never seen him so mad before. I think he's also a little angry at me that I didn't tell him earlier. How can I tell him now that I've secretly had powers for months and went out to fight Lung?" she trailed off.

"Who is Emma? Why did your dad take it so badly?" Amelia asked.

Taylor stayed quiet, looking like she wanted to slink away in shame all of a sudden, so I answered for her. "Emma Barnes used to be Taylor's best friend, as close as sisters. Her father Alan Barnes was good friends with Taylor's dad as well. He's a divorce lawyer at Carol's firm, and I suppose at one point Danny might have considered asking him for help with Taylor's case, not realizing that Alan was part of the problem." I guessed that Taylor had been so open because she assumed we both knew the whole story, but since it turned out that Amelia didn't, her anxiety came back, scared that her new friend would betray her like Emma. But, it was important that Taylor think of both of us, not just me, as a safe space, so I revealed it, and gave Amelia a silent signal.

"Barnes…now that you mention it, I think I've actually seen her before, at a party. Redhead? Part-time model?" Amelia asked. She saw my signal and added, "And total bitch?"

"That's the one," I said, nodding as I saw Taylor relaxing.

"Well, that is a tough spot be in. Maybe he'll cool down if you wait a while. A good father should be understanding. He didn't press you on it for a year and gave you your space this whole time, what's a little more?" I showed my empathy but hesitated to offer any solution. We could all go in person and reveal the truth, I doubted Taylor would want that, nor would I really benefit from having Danny in the know, despite what I told Taylor before.

"But, he's already suspicious. I don't think I can keep it from him for much longer. I told him I met a couple of new friends, but I don't think he bought it," Taylor said sullenly.

It was some kind of neurosis, I thought. She knew she should tell Danny the truth but kept finding excuses not to. She wanted to keep the two parts of her life separate.

I offered to arrange a fake part-time job for her, but she thought Danny wouldn't like that. Being a hero with a power was one thing, but getting a part-time job just to make money when her grades still weren't very good wouldn't fly.

Laying low, not coming as often? Another nope was her answer. She wanted to be a hero and contribute to the team.

I ended up offering to have us all go and reveal the truth. I wondered if I had been wrong about her neurosis, that maybe she was waiting for us to offer to go with her, but she turned it down saying she thought it'd be better for her to explain it to her dad first by herself. Smooth things over.

Then it hit me.

She must have wanted us to do another successful job, so that she could use as leverage and say that what happened with Lung wasn't a fluke. She didn't want to have to admit that what she did that day was reckless.

But she didn't want to come out and say that was what she wanted because she had agreed with me yesterday that we would be better off training a bit first, and didn't want to push for something I thought we weren't ready for.

"Maybe what we need is another big win. Something to show that Lung and Oni Lee wasn't a reckless fluke but a result of good preparation. That way it'll seem like you weren't really _hiding_ your powers for three months, but rather preparing and taking your time to make a well-considered decision to become a hero," I said, testing my theory.

I was right. Her face lit up. "Yes. I think that would help."

I would have preferred to continue laying low for another week, at least until I could resolve the situation with Canary, the outcome of which would significantly affect my strategy in Brockton Bay.

However, this was also an opportunity to encourage Taylor's conflict drive in a controlled direction with full support from her. It would save me the trouble of waiting passively for a situation that could be used to escalate in the name of justice and descend into the abyss of self-serving justifications. A big win would need a fittingly horrible enemy after all.

But if we were going to go out in public again, there was something we had to do first.

O O O

The PRT HQ was in an uproar as a massive swarm of bugs gathered in front of it. Troopers prepared defensive positions outside the main entrance and crowds gathered to watch and take pictures on the streets.

Reporters were already on the scene. They'd gotten the word after I used some of Coil's civilian connections.

The dense bugs came together to form words.

 **CRUCIBLE VISITING**

Three individuals flew in overhead.

One appeared to be a swarm of bugs on top of a giant beetle. It was Skitter, who had surrounded herself in bugs for extra safety while flying.

One was a woman in a fantasy-style full armour costume of dark green and silver, leaves, flowers, vines, and carried by a large set of wings on her back whose feathers looked like leaves with silver outlines. That was Araliac's new living costume. It wasn't symbiotic yet—she was merely controlling it directly with her power.

The last figure was being carried by Araliac with the assistance of her vines. I was in a highly reflective, multi-coloured full body costume whose colours all changed depending on the angle of view, like a chameleon but using only dark and cool metallic colours with a medieval-fantasy style armour design. I could have flown as well but I didn't want to reveal that card so easily, because I couldn't fly if I wasn't touching Agate. Unfortunately Amelia hadn't been able to make wings for me yet as that would require a direct nerve connection and some kind of new organ on my back.

We touched down slowly without any problems. I had informed the PRT ahead of time that we would be coming to officially register. I just didn't inform them that our arrival would be so flashy.

Armsmaster came out of the building cautiously with his halberd out, flanked by Aegis and Vista. The PRT HQ building downtown housed the younger Wards, while the Rig served as the Protectorate's HQ so it wasn't strange that we'd be received by a couple of Wards with Armsmaster, who was in charge of both superhero teams.

Once we touched down, Araliac released me, and Skitter came down from Atlas, while the bug swarm on her was absorbed into her costume through a hatch on her back. Her new costume was still almost pure black but had been adjusted with some greyish shades and lines that sculpted more of a fantasy look which fit with our theme.

We walked towards the trio of cape heroes.

"Hello, Armsmaster. Good to see you again," I said to the tense Armsmaster. I then turned to Aegis and Vista respectively and also greeted them. "Aegis, leader of the Wards, and Vista, the most veteran Ward, it's an honor to meet you two as well. I am Polychromic."

"Hello, I'm Araliac. It's a pleasure."

"Hi. I'm Skitter. Nice meeting you."

"The pleasure is ours," said Aegis. "We're happy to welcome new heroes to the city."

"Great job on Lung and Oni Lee, I saw your video on PHO!" Vista waved happily.

Armsmaster relaxed and nodded. "I see you have new costumes."

"This is one of the things I wanted to finish before registering with the PRT. Image is important, after all, as I'm sure you know. It's just a shame that we didn't have them ready in time for our first major battle. But, we are heroes, and we don't have the luxury of sitting around when duty calls. To be a hero is to walk with death," I said ominously, adapting the creed of the magus to heroism.

Reporters were capturing every moment of this, and I was going to go full throttle on my "hero" philosophy.

"Walk with death? That's a rather morbid way of looking at things," Armsmaster said.

"Memento mori, right? That's your team motto," Vista said.

I looked at the twelve—thirteen?—year old girl rated as a Shaker 9, who had the power to warp space.

"That's right. As heroes, we are risking our lives every time we go out to fight. You've seen more and fought more than any other Ward, so I imagine you understand it better than most," I said.

Then I turned towards the crowd of reporters at the side and faced the cameras directly.

"Memento mori. Remember you will die. For our team—it's a commitment and a resolution, that we are putting everything on the line. For the innocent—it's a reminder, that life is short, precious, and shouldn't be wasted living in fear and misery. For those on the wrong side—it's a warning. Your time is limited."

"You should be careful with those words. You don't want them to be taken the wrong way," said Armsmaster. "We will proceed with your registration inside." Then he gestured for us to follow. With the gesture, PRT troopers also began to block off the reporters. I guessed that he didn't want us to continue talking to the press.

"Thank you for the advice, Armsmaster. I will take care," I nodded to him, and the three of us moved forward, following after Armsmaster and Aegis.

Vista stared for a while at me with an unreadable look before going inside ahead of us.

Armsmaster led us to a conference room and had us all sit down while PRT personnel brought in some paperwork.

"It is very rare that the PRT registers an independent hero team. Most of the time when affiliated capes register, they are rogues or individual heroes. The process for teams is a bit more involved," Armsmaster began to explain, opening a presentation. Aegis and Vista were also here, observing attentively. It wasn't clear to me what their purpose here was. Maybe the intention was to give them a bit of experience with handling an unusual situation?

"As a team, it's assumed that you have a degree of organization that individuals lack. This means that the PRT and Protectorate can coordinate with you in different ways. What that would look like depends on your own goals, how you intend to operate, your schedules and availability, and how much information you're willing to share with us. For example, New Wave has a specific territory where they patrol, and we don't send our own heroes there unless they ask for assistance. When parahuman crimes in progress are reported to the PRT, if it's in their territory, we sent it on to New Wave and coordinate arrests with PRT troopers, but typically don't send additional heroes."

So he went through the presentation on various rules and procedures heroes are supposed to follow, important laws, etc.

By the end of it, I had the paperwork filled out. I told them that we didn't have planned patrol routes, hours, or a territory to operate in yet, but that we'd be open to taking requests for support near the docks and downtown on a case-by-case basis.

For information sharing, I said that we would send them whatever was relevant if we didn't plan to handle any situation ourselves.

I declined power testing again, but did provide a bit more information on our powers as a show of goodwill. Only because they already knew what I was going to tell them.

"You've probably guessed already. I am a Thinker," I said. "I also have some other minor powers, but I'd like to keep them secret for now."

"Do you have postcognition?" Armsmaster asked suddenly.

If he was able to guess that, there was little point in hiding it. It could actually be obfuscating, as my "postcognition" couldn't be used to get new information anymore.

"Hm…in a manner of speaking," I said. Once it became clear I wasn't going to say any more, Armsmaster looked to Araliac.

"I can do a lot with biology," she said, using our prepared answer. I already knew that the PRT knew she was Panacea, so hiding that wasn't meaningful anymore.

"Did you make that giant beetle?" Aegis asked curiously.

"I did. I made sure it has no ability to reproduce," she answered.

All three of the heroes sitting on the opposite side of the conference table went silent for a while, assessing her. Biotinkers and capes with the ability to make living things had terrible reputations.

"It's good that you've taken precautions. I don't need to warn you of the potential consequences of making self-reproducing organisms then," said Armsmaster.

She nodded back.

"We've covered all the basics you need to know. Given what you've told us, it sounds like you're going to be acting much more independent than the PRT would like. I would advise you to rethink this. There is a reason that there are very few independent hero teams. It is difficult to survive without the resources of the PRT and Protectorate," Armsmaster said.

"We're not like other hero teams. As we've stated clearly in our manifesto, we're going to take the fight to the villains. We wouldn't say that if we didn't have the resources and confidence to succeed. You've already guessed that my rating might be as high as Thinker 9," I said, casually demonstrating my supposed postcognition. "Do you think I'd go into any situation without being fully prepared?"

Aegis and Vista both turned to Armsmaster with clear shock, while the Tinker was completely still.

"That was…classified," he said in a tight controlled voice.

"I'm sharing information about myself, aren't I? What harm is there in letting a couple of Wards know?"

"You know what I mean. If you can figure that out…" Armsmaster said, referring to the other classified information in his discussion with Piggot.

"I'm not unwilling to cooperate with you, Armsmaster. But you know why I can't do much more than this."

He was silent for a moment. Then, "Director Piggot would like to have a word with you in her office."

O O O

 **A/N:** It's been a while since the last A/N. Considering that this is an OC SI story, and theoretically in the multicross/multiverse travel niche, both of which are small niches, I'm pleasantly surprised to see so many readers following and favouriting the story. As of this posting I see 564 favs and 661 follows, which is amazing to me. I originally had a hard time finding a multiverse travelling story with an MC that wasn't excessively overpowered or try to fix everything type of hero, and that was the driving force behind my decision to write this story, so I am glad that this has had such a great reception. This isn't my most popular story, but it's definitely the one I enjoy writing the most, and I hope I can continue to keep it coming for a long time.

That said, there's been a few reviews with questions/longer comments lately, so I'll take this time to respond.

omarekiaby - If Kaleidus simply said he was from another Earth, that wouldn't explain his precognitive knowledge which isn't an ability, or why he's trapped as he claims to be on Earth Bet (he did just demonstrate the ability to portal to other Earths at will). There's also the chance of taking Amelia/Taylor along if/when he manages to figure out how to escape from the Worm multiverse, so being upfront about is not a bad idea.

superpierce - On whether Amy is falling for Kaleidus, I'd hesitate to call it that at this point. Certainly she's become very attached, but it's not quite the same as romantic feelings, for which she still has the problem of Vicky's aura affecting her sexuality.

chingy - Amy's gift of making him superhuman was an unexpected bonus. The intention was primarily to change Amy's way of thinking and make her more attached and reliant on Kaleidus. The speech he repeated to her is the core of the content he wanted her to think about and accept, with the three key elements of "guide you", "holding back a monster inside", and "bear your sins with you". Creating an artficial magic circuit at the time was an opportunistic thing, in that he needed it to make the act more real and he also got a benefit out of it regardless of how persuasive he was, so as long as she saved him.

Zane Tribal Tyne Alexandros - There are lots of ways to gain more magical power depending on the magical setting he is able to visit. Even in Nasuverse, there are ways though they would be somewhat more difficult than in most other settings. I'm pretty sure magical cores in Harry Potter are fanon though. It's never explained where Wizard/Witch magic comes from or if they can actually get magically exhausted. My impression has always been that canonically, the power of one's magic was simply a matter of skill, not a source of power.

TediousExploit - Kaleidus definitely won't be getting into fist fights if he can help it, but suddenly whipping out amazing close range combat capability when everyone thinks you have none is a pretty good card. Like when Tohsaka used martial arts on Medea and completely took her by surprise. But more importantly though, what Kaleidus got out of the meeting was an opportunity to look at Cranial's tech up close, giving exp to Amy on observing brain changes, and one more reason which is currently a spoiler.


	32. Volition 3-9 Omake

**Omake Throwing off Suspicion (Volition 3.9)**

"But, he's already suspicious. I don't think I can keep it from him for much longer. I told him I met a couple of new friends, but I don't think he bought it," Taylor said sullenly.

It was some kind of neurosis, I thought. She knew she should tell Danny the truth but kept finding excuses not to. She wanted to keep the two parts of her life separate.

But if that was what she wanted...

"Hmm…I know how you can throw off his suspicion," I said.

Her eyes brightened. "How?"

"You can have a deep and passionate kiss with Amelia," I said.

Her face turned red and she spluttered. "Wh-what?! No way!" Then her eyes darted to Amelia and said in a panicked voice, "Uh—I mean, I-I'm not into girls!"

"No offense taken," Amelia said, eyebrows twitching. "How exactly does that help Taylor throw off suspicion?"

I pouted, not getting more of a reaction from Amelia. It seemed that she was getting used to the outrageous things I said on a daily basis.

With a sigh, I elaborated. "Here's the plan. We'll take a cute picture of you two and…"

After listening to my irrefutable logic, they reluctantly gave in to my plan.

O O O

Taylor walked in the door to see Danny sitting in the living room couch. "Hey dad," she said, bringing her hand out of her pocket to wave at him, with an unusually happy expression.

Danny waved back and greeted her. "Hey little owl." His smile was somewhat strained. "Out with your new friends again? You should try to be careful not to be out so late. It's dangerous out there with the recent gang activity."

"I know, dad, but I'm a big girl now, I can take care of myself," said Taylor as she headed for her room, apparently not noticing the picture that fell out of her pocket behind her.

Just as she was at the stairs, Danny noticed and opened his mouth to tell her, "You—"

But simultaneously, Taylor turned her head and called out, "I'm feeling pretty beat today, so I think I'll just head to bed. Good night, dad!" Then she rushed up the stairs without giving Danny a chance to respond.

"—dropped something,' Danny finished lamely. He sighed and got up to pick up what Taylor dropped.

As he approached he noticed it was a white, cloud-edged square with a signature on the back. He picked it up and read it as a hastily scrawled 'Amy'.

Then he flipped it over.

His eyes widened. There was Taylor, and there was another girl that looked very familiar to him.

And they were hugging. Very intimately and with bright smiles looking at the camera, heads touching, dressed in beautiful clothes that he _knew_ Taylor didn't own.

He stared for a long while.

He swallowed. "Oh, Taylor…" It was impossible to tell what kind of conclusions he came to.

Carefully, he put the picture back down on the ground, facedown, and backed away. He went to the kitchen and filled a glass of water. He took it back with him to the couch, and opened the TV to a random channel.

Shortly after, Taylor rushed out of her room and bolted downstairs, made a show of searching around, and quickly picked up the photo and stuffed it back into her pocket.

She speed-walked back to the stairs without saying anything to her dad.

"Hey, Taylor," her dad called out.

She turned around with an expression like a deer caught in headlights.

"I know a lot has been going on lately, and you're probably really stressed out…I just…I want you to know that you can talk to me about anything, alright? I'll…I'll always support you," he said, obviously struggling with the words.

"Uh…yeah. Sure. Thanks, dad," she said, looking down, her ears burning red, deeply embarrassed.

Danny's eyes lingered on her hand which was still in her pocket, as Taylor quickly shuffled back upstairs.

He took a long and deep breath, then sighed.

O O O

"It worked!" I declared, watching through Agate.

Amelia's groaned with her face in her hands. "I can't believe I agreed to this!"

O O O

A/N: This was a previous iteration of events last chapter. Kaleidus might have done this as a joke to see the girls would agreed, but ultimately he had a serious reaction to Taylor's issue.


	33. Volition 3-10

**Volition 3.10**

"I had the things you told us checked out. Thanks to your tip, we've dealt with a number of moles in our branch, and upgraded our security measures. I don't like how much information you keep from us, but I can appreciate help when it's given," said Piggot.

I hadn't been aware of how much progress they made on that front, as I wasn't keeping tabs on Piggot 24/7. The Coil moles I now had access to weren't aware of being exposed, so presumably Piggot had gone with the canonical strategy of feeding them false information, which meant they were no longer reliable for me.

Armsmaster was again to the side of her desk, while Aegis and Vista had been left to do whatever it is they needed to do on their own.

I stood with Araliac and Skitter in front of the director.

"I'm glad to hear that things worked out," I said.

"Consider this a thank you for your assistance," she said. Then she turned towards Araliac. "We are already aware of your identity. The PRT follows the unspoken rules wherever possible, but in your case you are still a minor and your legal guardians are the ones looking for you. We are obligated to assist them in this. Even if we tried to hide it for you, your family would soon identify you based on your power the way you're applying it now. Fortunately for you, due to some technicalities and loopholes with cape laws, once I have determined that your civilian identity is no longer missing, the PRT is not under any obligation to force you to go home."

Araliac gave me a glance before turning to respond to Piggot.

"Are you saying that you're going to help me stay independent?"

"I will not have my forces assist your family, but I will not stop them from trying to take you back either. They believe you were Mastered into running away, and there is little I can do to dissuade them otherwise…" Piggot gave me a pointed look.

"No, she wasn't Mastered. She teamed up with me by her own free will. I have no Master powers," I said.

The plan to drive a wedge between the PRT and Skitter was already largely successful. I had no need to continue provoking and scaring Piggot if she was taking such a surprisingly friendly approach to us. That would just make me look bad instead.

Piggot looked to Armsmaster, who stared at me and nodded slowly. What was up with that? I hadn't said anything that could—

I felt a sudden chill as I noticed Piggot's face turn dark. It had slipped my mind that my partnership with Agate and some things we could theoretically do would fall under the PRT's Master classification. I had thought so much about ways of gaining control over people lately that I kept thinking of myself as not having Master powers because I couldn't directly influence anyone, but forgot the other aspect of the classification that applied to control over projections and creatures, like the Siberian and Nilbog.

Did Armsmaster's algorithm detect a lie? But how could it? I hadn't even realized it myself when I said it. Or were they _hoping_ I was a Master for some reason, and were disappointed when the lie detector showed a truth for my denial?

Piggot spoke up again, breaking me out of my speeding thoughts.

"Polychromic. Most Thinkers have a tendency to try and be the smartest person in the room. Some say it's the very reason they triggered with Thinker powers. And I'll admit, some Thinker powers can be very impressive, but high level Thinkers often overestimate themselves. They lose track of common sense. Being smarter doesn't mean wiser, and Thinkers often forget that," she said.

I was silent for a moment, trying to see where she was going with this.

"I won't say that you're acting unwisely. You would see it as an insult, and I'm hardly in a position to be condescending. You've told us about things that I don't have a good solution to either. But you told us these things and withheld other information for your own reasons, and I don't buy that it's just because you're afraid of this mysteriously Thinker more powerful than you finding out. I can only guess at your motivations, and your team motto is deeply concerning. For now, it seems that we're on the same side. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as they say. However, if you take things too far, I'll have no choice but to react accordingly."

"What's wrong with our team motto? We're not threatening to kill anybody, just reminding people that life is precious," said Skitter.

"That you feel the need to explain yourself suggests otherwise," said Piggot. "Villains will see it as a threat regardless of how you spin it. If they think you're prepared to kill, they may up the ante on their own."

"I appreciate your concerns, Director. I don't agree, but I understand why you feel that way. Sometimes it takes a bit of unconventional thinking to break out of an impasse, which is what we have been in for the past couple of decades as villainy became the norm. I doubt we'll convince each other on this, but as you say the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so let's just leave it at that. Time will tell if our strategy is wise or not," I said.

After a polite dismissal, we left the meeting and on our way out we saw a group of reporters and a large crowd of people still outside the entrance to the building. I pulled Araliac aside and whispered.

"Piggot has already made her stance clear. I think it's a good idea to use this opportunity to announce it on your own terms, rather than letting New Wave announce their version of the story first."

"Huh? But…I haven't been to the hospital for days. I don't really want to go either. What if the public doesn't like that?"

"It's okay. I've got your back. This is what you should say…"

O O O

Back at Piggot's office, Agate stayed behind for a short while.

"I knew it was too good to be true. So he's a Master after all?" Piggot said with frustration.

"Not…exactly," said Armsmaster.

"What? But you nodded. That was the signal we agreed on."

"It's strange. I got a lie for Panacea was not Mastered, and a truth for her joining of her own free will, as well as Polychromic not having Master powers. This indicates that Polychromic believes Panacea was Mastered by somebody else at some point. If she went to Polychromic of her own free will, then this would suggest that either she escaped a previous Master effect somehow, possibly with Polychromic's assistance, or that Polychromic used another cape to Master Panacea after she joined him to guarantee her loyalty."

"Both are plausible, although…" Piggot trailed off pensively.

"If Panacea had been Mastered and then saved by Polychromic, it would explain why she would suddenly team up with him, and her sudden change in attitude. That kind of trauma could easily make someone more willing to fight instead of simply being a healer. But it raises the question of why Polychromic didn't warn us about this other Master. Even if the Master was already defeated, Polychromic should have known that explaining things to us would make us less suspicious of him having Mastered Panacea himself," said Armsmaster.

"I think there's a simpler explanation. In your scenario, why would Panacea run away from home, and refuse to go back? Even if Polychromic saved her, mere gratitude wouldn't make a teenager decide to fight her own family to escape and join her savior."

"Are you implying that her own family had her Mastered? I'm not sure that's a simpler explanation. Why would her family get someone to Master her?"

Piggot gave Armsmaster a slight smirk. "Oh but it is. You're neglecting a little detail. There is a Master among the Dallons."

Armsmaster had no visible response for a few seconds. "Oh," he said, finally. "Glory Girl."

"Exactly. Her aura is officially classified as Shaker, but only because we try not to assign human-influencing heroes Master ratings. If she was the culprit, then everything fits. Polychromic never mentioned it because he, or Panacea, is trying to protect Glory Girl's reputation."

O O O

After making adequate preparation, we stepped out of the building amid a swathe of camera flashes.

I raised my voice and shouted. "People of Brockton Bay! We have officially registered as this city's new independent hero team! We look forward to working with the PRT and Protectorate to fight crime! But first, Araliac has an announcement to make."

I gestured towards her with my arm and stepped back to let her take the front.

The reporters hustled, all trying to fight their way to the centre.

Araliac's armored helmet split and retracted on its own to reveal her face.

"Before I joined Team CRUCIBLE, my cape name was Panacea," she said.

The crowd immediately went wild with shouts and whispers and questions.

I raised a hand and shouted with invisible amplification from Agate, stunning the crowd into silence. "Let her speak!"

"People knew me as the miracle healer. The girl who could cure cancer and regrow lost limbs. But healing isn't the only thing I can do. I can do a lot more than that. I _want_ to do more than that. In New Wave, I—I was never allowed to do more than heal. I've healed… _thousands_ of people over the past two years, but I think…that I can make an even bigger impact. There is a saying. _An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure_. As Panacea, I've always been _curing_. But now, with Team CRUCIBLE, as Araliac, I can be part of the prevention! I will fight with my new team to root out the crimes that are the _source_ of injury, starvation, disease and drug abuse! Please continue to support me."

After that, the reporters started asking questions, but we simply flew into the air and away. We had to get out of there before New Wave found out and confronted us.

O O O


	34. Interlude 3-x (Wards, PRT)

**Interlude 3.x (Wards, PRT)**

Shortly after Armsmaster left with CRUCIBLE to meet with Director Piggot, Aegis and Vista went to another featureless closed room for debriefing.

Deputy Director Renick, Miss Militia, and a young man of Puerto Rican descent with long hair were waiting for them.

Aegis and Vista then sat down in front of the three, and Aegis unmasked himself.

"Your costume feels a bit stuffy, Carlos. Maybe I'm just used to hard plates," the unmasked person in the Aegis costume said.

The Puerto Rican youth gave him a smile. "That's because you never did any competitive sports, Dean. Skin-tight suits are common for a lot of them."

"Do you think they suspected anything?" Renick asked.

"No, sir," said Dean. "Not even Araliac seemed to notice anything off with my disguise."

Renick nodded. "Good. Let's get to the main point then. We'll start with you Vista, so Gallant's emotion-reading won't give you any biases. Your impressions of them, anything you thought was strange?"

The twelve-year old Ward gave a quick reply. "I didn't really notice anything strange. They were pretty much just how I thought they'd be, based on their video. Araliac and Skitter didn't talk much. Polychromic is just as intense in person. Is he really a Thinker 9?"

She knew from experience that such high ratings were very rare. She herself had an equally high rating of 9, but higher level Shakers were slightly more common. Labyrinth, for example, was another cape in town with a rating even higher than her own. She didn't know of anything Polychromic did that warranted that kind of rating, and was very curious. In the video, it wasn't even obvious that he had powers at all. They barely showed any of the actual fighting, to her great annoyance. But then again, she thought, a guy would have to be insane to fight Lung without powers, so he obviously couldn't have been unpowered. It made more sense that he would have an exceptional power, in retrospect, to have defeated the cape that could fight on par with Leviathan.

"Is that what he told you? We have him classified as Thinker 5 in the files," said Renick.

Vista looked at him oddly, then turned to Gallant beside her.

"Sir, maybe discussion about his rating should wait until we meet with Director Piggot or Armsmaster. Armsmaster seemed to indicate that was classified. I also have unusual emotion feedback about when he made that statement that could be relevant," said Gallant. He quickly came to the conclusion that it must have been classified even from Renick and Miss Militia, based on the emotions he was reading from them. Still, that was strange. He didn't understand why there was so much scrutiny over Polychromic and his team when they were fellow heroes. It didn't escape him that Armsmaster seemed to be treating Polychromic like some kind of bomb waiting to go off. Dean had never felt his superior officer so agitated inside.

Renick looked confused for a bit before realization dawned on him. "I see. We'll do as you suggest, then. If Vista has no further comments, then what did you feel from them, Gallant? Did you notice anything strange about Araliac or Skitter's emotions? Anything that could suggest some kind of Master effect?"

"I didn't detect any active effect happening, but I can't really identify victims of prior Master effects that were permanent. What I did observe was that they were both very anxious, especially Araliac. Skitter seemed to be on edge when she first met us, but calmed down after a while. Araliac's emotions were a bit hard to read. There were too many of them at the same time, but nothing that stood out to me as being the cause of a Master effect. It seemed more like there were a lot of things on her mind other than the meeting with us."

"Describe this tenseness in a more detail for me. What did they seem to be wary about? Any topics or things you thought seemed to be associated with their anxiety?"

"As I said, Skitter seemed to be particularly tense when she saw me and Missy. A little fearful, a little bit of shame, and a little resentment. But, it didn't feel like she recognized us or met us before, so I think the resentment part isn't directed specifically towards Vista and me. Maybe the Wards, Protectorate, or PRT as a whole."

Renick kept his gaze evenly on Dean. "You have the best judgement of your own power, so your instinct is likely correct. I'll have that noted down. Resentment towards Wards/PRT/Protectorate organization for unknown reasons. Anything for Araliac?"

"Whenever the conversation turned to powers, mostly. But like I said, she seemed to be distracted, so I'm not sure any of that is reliable."

"Alright. What about yourselves? Did you feel any sort of effect on you or Vista?"

"Nothing overt, no. But…" he hesitated a bit. It seemed a little unfair to bring this up, as he was pretty sure it wasn't a Master effect, and was Vista's own personal issue. It was too late, however, as he'd inadvertently indicated there was something more, and Renick wouldn't let him back out of it now.

"Just say it, Gallant. We're taking all precautions, even if you aren't sure. These were our orders. We at least need to note it down, even if you don't think it means anything," Renick said.

"Vista was unusually happy when Polychromic talked to her. I think it's just because he was complimenting her, though, in a way," he said, finally.

Vista was taken aback and felt embarrassment worming up her face. She couldn't deny it. She thought their motto was really cool, and Polychromic seemed to _get_ things. He called her the most veteran ward, and treated her with a lot of respect. Respect that nobody in the Wards or the PRT seemed to give her, despite her actually being the most experienced. Yet, becoming the leader wasn't even on the table for her. They skipped her over for Aegis after Triumph left, even though he'd barely been a parahuman for a year. She knew her age would be a barrier to getting acceptance from subordinates, but she hated it anyways.

Like Polychromic said…to be a hero is to walk with death. They could suddenly die at any time out there, but they still treated her with kid gloves. She was a soldier that fought more than any of them, why didn't that count for anything? It was stupid. Like her useless costume that was supposed to make her look _cute_. And Clockblocker. Not that she had anything against him—she could even appreciate some of his jokes—but he was so much more immature yet he'd still probably be ahead of the line when it came to future Wards leadership, just because he was older.

Dean felt Missy's embarrassment suddenly turn into a wave of frustration and anger. He reacted immediately. "I'm sorry, Missy. I shouldn't have said that. I didn't mean to imply there was anything wrong with you being happy to be complimented. You deserve the recognition." He regretted his words, and especially that he brought it up in front of her. If there was any real concern, he could have at least talked to Renick privately about it.

Dean's voice took away all of her anger in an instant, and replaced it with mortified embarrassment again. He must have read her emotions and completely misunderstood! She berated herself for her lapse in emotional discipline. Now her crush must think she had a fragile ego that needed validation and got angry when called out on it.

"I'm not angry at you, Dean. It's just—never mind," she said. It was awful. She couldn't even explain why she got angry, because she would sound exactly like the little kid she didn't want them to treat her as. Because a kid complaining about not being taken seriously was typical immature behaviour from children. They were all staring at her now. It was so unfair.

"Sorry," Dean repeated himself. "I mean what I said though. Really. You deserve it. It's my fault for making something out of nothing." He desperately tried to fix his mistake, but Vista wasn't having any of it. She just kept feeling more shame and frustration as he kept talking. It didn't make any sense. He knew she had a crush on him. He would have thought that giving her the same recognition would help, but it didn't. It just went to show that his powers didn't make him a social maverick. Reading emotions was only half the battle, he needed to learn the right ways to respond. He had a long way to go before he could live up to his name.

Renick coughed to get their attention. "Putting that aside for now, then. Was there anything else notable you observed? Even just general things about their personality or team dynamic."

"Polychromic has very good control over his emotions. He gives me the sense that he's very experienced in similar situations. Talking to the press, making speeches, dealing with us professionally. It could just be his Thinker power, but it feels more like confidence from experience. If he wasn't a cape before, he must have had a very public or big leadership role of some kind in his civilian identity," said Dean.

"That's very interesting. It's quite rare for people who were already very successful to become capes, especially with powers very high on the scale, at least based on the fraction of historically identified capes we know of. There are many theories about it, but most experts agree that it has something to do with being less susceptible to the emotions necessary for triggering. But it's not unheard of for social Thinkers to get a boost like that either. Definitely noting this one," Renick said as he wrote.

"I also had this feeling that he wasn't taking the PRT seriously. It's hard to describe what emotion that was. But it felt a bit as if to him, registering with the PRT was just going through the motions. A chore that had to be done. Bored, but resigned, kind of. When Armsmaster talked about cooperating on patrol schedules, I even felt a bit of disdain."

"That doesn't bode well. Noted."

"Something that stuck out to me was when he talked about his powers. There was the part about his Thinker 9 rating, which I'll wait until we're cleared by the Director for, but even besides that it was strange. When he said he was a Thinker, it was with a feeling of irony. As if it was only _technically_ true. And there was also proudness and arrogance. Is it possible that he wants us to think he's a high level Thinker, and is actually smart enough or otherwise has some means to pretend to be one, but really isn't?"

Renick narrowed his eyes. "You're saying that he meant he was a thinker, lowercase, not the PRT rating, to mislead us?"

"Maybe, but I don't know how somebody could pretend to be a 9 on the scale, if we have evidence for that. Or maybe his Thinker powers aren't his main thing. Because when he said he had some other 'minor powers', the emotions that pinged me most were…gleeful furtiveness and _ambition,_ oddly enough. I don't think ambition mixes with 'minor' powers, unless they can grow."

"A grab-bag then? I do hope he stays on our side, if any of these minor powers turn out to deserve a rating higher than 9," said Renick. "But I doubt that. Even if he is ambitious, he could also just be overestimating himself too much."

"Sir, can I ask why we're scrutinizing CRUCIBLE, and Polychromic, so heavily? Is there some reason to think he might not stay on our side?"

"I'm afraid most of it is classified," said Renick. "Even from me, it seems."

"Is it just because of Araliac's other identity and suspicions about her being Mastered?" Renick hadn't told them who it was, but it wasn't hard to piece together. Victoria had already told him about her sister running away, and combined with Araliac's abilities, it was pretty obvious. Victoria said her sister was Mastered, and going by this investigation, the PRT was suspicious about it too.

"That's only part of it. The PRT is also concerned about their methods, and other recent alarming events that may or may not be related. What I can tell you is that their battle with Lung and Oni Lee raised a few flags. Lung is still comatose, and we think it was deliberate .Polychromic also took threatened to kill Lung to trick Oni Lee. That, combined with the remains we collected from the scene of the battles…Miss Militia had some observations there," Renick explained.

Attention turned to Miss Militia. "At the scene where they fought Lung, we recovered samples of debris from what appeared to be jam tin grenades that I recognized from my time fighting in Africa. We also recovered the remains of a compound bow. The bow suggests that he didn't have the means, or time, to acquire a gun before, and the grenade suggests a mentality more suitable for guerilla warfare than patrolling the streets. Despite his apparent competence, he is almost certainly a new trigger with few resources, and a potential willingness to ignore the unwritten rules to win at any cost. This paints a dangerous picture with Skitter using lethal venoms and Araliac sending Lung into a coma. What we are concerned about is the possibility that they will treat _any_ conflict with villain groups as total war. We don't need Brockton Bay turning into a warzone, our job is to keep the peace and protect the public."

Dean and Missy was quiet taking in the new information.

"And here I was glad about a new hero team appearing," said Carlos with a sigh. "Brockton Bay just can't get a break."

"We're done here then. You will be called when Director Piggot is ready to see you."

O O O

As Carlos, Dean, and Missy went back to the Wards lounge room, it was empty.

"So...recent events that may or may not be related, he said," Vista broke the silence. "Shadow Stalker?"

"They haven't told me anything you guys don't already know. Just that she violated her probation and has been removed from the team," said Carlos.

"Now I really am the only girl on the team," said Vista. "Still, I'm kind of glad. Stalker was a jerk. Serves her right."

"It's not right to say that, Missy. Regardless of her shortcomings, she was our teammate. And she was pretty good at her job, at least," said Dean.

"I know, I know. I can't help it, she was just so...mean," said Missy.

"Dean's right. Although to be frank, I don't think her presence on the team was good for our team dynamic. Working together well and having the right attitude is also important. Whatever happened, one thing is for sure. Our newest member came at just the right time. Speaking of which, I'm going to check on Steven," Carlos said.

"Might as well come with you, we have nothing else scheduled right now, right?" asked Dean.

Carlos nodded, and all of them went into the console room.

"Oh, hey guys. You met the new team in town?" Steven asked as they came in. He was a moderately handsome teen with Caucasian features and brown hair. Sitting down, it wasn't as obvious, but he was also on the tall side. He had a well-built muscular body, but the rest of the Wards had secretly speculated his power might have had something to do with it.

"Yeah. They were interesting, and intense. Maybe a little too intense," said Carlos. He didn't go into any detail. Their operation was also classified from the rest of the Wards, and he wasn't the one who actually met CRUCIBLE face to face. But from Steven's view on the console screens, it would have looked like Aegis had been there at the front doors.

"I like them. They've already accomplished a lot for being such a new team. When was the last time the heroes had a major victory over the villains? It's been years since a strong villain was arrested, but they got both Lung _and_ Oni Lee on their first night," said Vista with a defiant look.

Carlos looked surprised. He thought they had all been pretty concerned after the revelations from Renick and Miss Militia.

"Oh yeah. And Araliac and Skitter are just teens like us, right? No way I would've taken on Lung for my first fight. That's seriously hardcore," Steven said with admiration in his tone as he nodded to Vista's opinion. He'd been active for a few months now, and had been quietly testing the waters solo with small-time perps. The worst he had been involved in were a few minor skirmishes with Victor and Othala, the Merchants, and a couple Undersiders. But they were just skirmishes to test his power, so both sides held their own and got away for the most part. He built a little reputation, but compared to CRUCIBLE, he hadn't accomplished anything of real substance. Not like he would want to, either. He wouldn't have even dared to fight capes like Lung and Oni Lee. They were known for being dangerous murderers that fought evenly against all of Empire 88's ten-plus capes by themselves. Crazy.

Encouraged, Vista continued. "And… _to be a hero is to walk with death_ ," she said mimicking Polychromic's serious tone. "You can just feel how dedicated they are."

"I totally caught that speech from here, man," said Browbeat, referring to the monitoring screens and recording system for the HQ entrance. "Fuck, I'm glad somebody's willing to take the heat, you know? I don't think I could ever do it."

"Come on, Browbeat, you're a Ward too now. Fighting's part of the package," said Vista, slightly disappointed in his attitude.

"Are you trying to scare the new guy, Missy? The fights that Wards get into aren't really that serious, Steven. There's not really a risk of death here. The villains know better than to try and seriously hurt a Ward. The PRT would come down on them hard," said Carlos with a chuckle.

Missy frowned. "You guys weren't here when Saccharide volunteered to join a Simurgh fight in '08. She never came back. They kept it on the down low, but I know what really happened. They left her in the quarantine because she heard the scream for too long. Sure she didn't have to go, but that kind of thing is our duty as heroes. And sooner or later, if you join the Protectorate when you're eighteen, you'll have to fight villains and go on patrols at least, whether you want to or not. You won't be able to just stay in the console room all day."

Carlos found no response to that. He glanced at Dean who was closer to Missy, but Dean gave a helpless look back. He had not realized how serious Missy took her job as a Ward either, and neither of them had been in the Wards during 2008. Dean also didn't want to continue offending Missy by arguing.

"Sorry, Missy, I just prefer the peace and quiet. I'm only here because the rules for Wards are pretty chill. We don't have to fight anything too dangerous if we don't want to. I don't think my family would be okay with me joining the Protectorate either," said Steven.

The team was silent in the heavy mood for a while.

Then, Dean noticed the screen showing the entrance. "Hey, they're doing something out there. What are they saying to the press now?"

"Hold up, I'm bringing up the audio," said Steven.

They watched as Araliac suddenly revealed herself as Panacea.

"Woah, that's _Panacea_?" Steven was shocked, but it wasn't much of a surprise to the other three Wards.

"That's next level stuff right there. Look at the reporters, they're eating this up. It's all a big stage to them. The age-old debate, prevention vs. cure, symptom vs. root cause, except she's framing it in cape psychology and politics. The root of injury, disease, and economic woes, huh. And she wants to cure it all. Ambitious…" Steven started rambling to himself.

Dean watched with a growing sense of dread. It was one thing to join another team, but telling the press before her family about why she quit? He could just imagine the kind of reaction Victoria would have over this. And she'd probably blame him somehow for not taking the opportunity to persuade Amy to go back home.

Rubbing his temples, he decided that he needed to contact his girlfriend before she found out by herself, and prepared to send her a text.


	35. Interlude 3-y (New Wave)

**Interlude 3.y (New Wave)**

Dean::[You have to see this. It's Amy.]

[Dean has shared a link with you!

Panacea rebranded, "root out the crimes" HUGE reveal at PRT

 _Literally all the rumors got it wrong guys our healer just ditched New_

 _Wave_ _and became a ****ing boss overnight, founds new team, roflstomps_

 _Lung_ _and Oni Lee like 'this is my true power scrubs' and says she's going_

 _to_ _ROOT_ _out the crimes..._

 **CLICK** to view more.]

[wtf? Checking now]::

She followed the link Dean sent to a PHO thread with a video embed only posted minutes ago.

The face of her sister was the cover image, but she was in a costume Victoria had never seen before.

She quickly pressed the play button and watched. The video was short and only showed Amy giving her speech before grabbing Polychromic and flying off with Skitter.

When the video ended, Victoria sat there having forgotten all about her homework.

[omg

W.

T.

F.?]::

Dean::[At least we know where she is now, right?]

She scrolled through the rapidly collecting comments with an increasingly incredulous expression.

* * *

 **Topic: Panacea rebranded, "root out the crimes" HUGE reveal at PRT**  
 **In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay ►**  
 **FinalBossOwning** (Original Poster) (Cape Groupie)  
Posted On Apr 13th 2011:  
...

 **(Showing page 1 of 7)**

► **EpicSamurai** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:  
Think OP is a little too excited. They never really showed the fight, what roflstomp? But they did win, so I can admit this new Panacea might be able to back up her words.

► **Brocktonite03** (Veteran Member) (Wiki Warrior)  
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:  
This is big. Really big. Just merged the Araliac wiki page with Panacea. A lot of things going to need editing. I'm actually looking forward to it.

► **FinalBossOwning** (Original Poster) (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:  
EpicSamurai what you smoking? doesn't matter if we didn't see the full fight. Facts are facts. Panacea dips - decides to fight for real - crushes the guys that fought entire Protectorate teams, the dragon that fought LEVIATHAN to a standstill - shows up again two days later looking like her hair wasn't even singed and we know she can't heal herself. Wat you call that if not roflstomping? she ddn't even have the new armor during that fight.

► **EpicSamurai** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:  
OP  
Look, I get that she got some serious results, but it's not like it was all her, right? The other two capes in Crucible and the PRT were involved in those fights. If it was really a roflstomp, why not just show us the whole thing?

► **AngryBBMthFker**  
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:  
The hell PRT didn't do jack! My friend's in the PRT and they told me the truth. They actually fought CRUCIBLE by accident!

► **FinalBossOwning** (Original Poster) (Cape Groupie)  
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:  
EpicSamurai stop spreading disinformation. The PRT wasn't involved, or they'd have put that in their press release. They just came for the arrest after CRUCIBLE did all the work. Also why would they show the full video? You think you're worthy of seeing Araliac's true power? u are literally nobody, like the rest of us scrubs all these boards. liek we're not even capes.

► **CalmandCollected**  
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:  
OP Stick to posting videos, and skip the commentary please. You sound like an obsessed fanboi now.

► **Drac002gon**  
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:  
One word. BADASS!

3 3 3

► **WonderLegionXX** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:  
Hold on. Is she still going to heal people at the hospital? Or is that not a thing anymore?

► **8263013941**  
Replied On Apr 13th 2011:  
New Wave sucks. Why'd they hold her back? If she'd started fighting for real sooner, maybe the gangs wouldn't be so ****ing arrogant, maybe if she got Lung earlier my house would still be one piece. What has New Wave even done in the last few years? They've just been riding Panacea's rep for healing and sitting on their asses

 **End of Page. 1,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **5** **,** **6** **,** **7**

* * *

She stood up and almost crushed her phone at the last comment. "Ames…! Why…?" She couldn't believe that her sister could betray them like that. Not only did she break off from her family and her team without saying a word, she went to the press and lied about what happened, making New Wave look terrible.

In Victoria's mind, it had always been Amy's own rule. Even if their parents thought she shouldn't use it for anything other than healing, she also agreed that it was for the best, didn't she?

The only explanation was that her sister had been Mastered. That was what they thought had happened, and what they reported to the PRT. But the hero team Amy joined didn't jibe with that picture.

CRUCIBLE. She had even cheered them on when she heard the news. It was the topic everyone was talking about at school all of today and yesterday.

She rushed down to the kitchen where her parents were making dinner.

"Mom! Dad! Look at this!"

She shoved the phone towards them and started playing the video of Amy's speech.

Carol stopped chopping the vegetables to see what had her daughter frantic. Mark came over from the table to stand beside her.

By the end of the video, Carol had a cold and hard look on her.

"I see. So that's where she went," she said. Then she returned to chopping vegetables. Each slash came down with unnatural force, digging into the chopping board.

Mark had a confused expression on him. "Isn't that the PRT HQ? Did they know about this?"

His question was unheeded as Victoria went slack-jawed at her mother's response.

"Mom! Is that all you have to say? We have to do something!"

The cleaver slammed down on the wood, shaking the counter.

"No. Amy made her choice. We will do nothing," said Carol.

"What? _Mom!_ Amy was Mastered! You can't blame her for that! We have to save her!"

"Use your head, Victoria. Why hasn't the PRT informed us already, when Amy talked to the press right at the PRT building? This was clearly a sanctioned event and they didn't want us to interfere. They must have determined that Amy is not under any Master effect, and decided to let her do as she wants. Legally, there is nothing we can do at this point. We can get a court order as her guardians to take custody, but the police don't have jurisdiction to enforce. The PRT is not obligated to enforce any orders from civil courts on capes, and a criminal court would never accept the case without a PRT prosecutor," said Carol.

"That's bullshit! Dad, you agree with me right? We have to go save her!"

Mark was uncomfortable as Carol gave shot him a look. "Well, your mother is the legal expert…"

"This isn't about the legal issues! All I'm hearing are excuses! It'd like you don't even care! She's my sister! Your daughter!" Victoria floated into the air with a furious expression.

Carol crossed her arms. "She's not my daughter anymore. She never was. I knew this would happen someday. She knows who her _real_ father is now, and it looks like she'll be following in his footsteps soon."

"Carol—" Mark was cut off as Victoria screamed in rage and flew off.

"Where do you think you're going, young lady! You're already in trouble with the PRT, if you do anything else…!" Carol shouted.

Carol and Mark rushed after her, only to catch her last words right before she shot out the door.

"I don't care what you say, she's my sister and I'm going to bring her back!"

Her parents could only watch helplessly as Victoria flew into the air. They were unable to fly and follow after her.

Carol cursed. "Piggot, you slimy bitch! It wasn't enough for you to take Victoria, you want to ruin New Wave's reputation too? Just what are you playing at?"

Then she took out her phone and quickly called her own sister.

O O O

As Victoria flew into the air, it wasn't long before she came to a stop far above the PRT building. There was no trace of CRUCIBLE or her sister anymore, and the crowd at the front had dispersed with only a few news trucks still left behind.

She looked all around and couldn't see where CRUCIBLE might have gone to. They had no public HQ, no known gathering points or even patrols yet.

Floating high above, she thought about going in to the PRT building to demand an explanation, but her mother's words stopped her. She was angry, but that didn't mean she couldn't hear her mother's logic. _This was clearly a sanctioned event_.

Could it be true that her sister wasn't Mastered? She had a hard time believing it. Wasn't it possible that the PRT had been tricked or Mastered instead? Still, if that were the case, going to the PRT would get her nowhere.

She called Dean.

" _Vicky?_ _I'm on duty right now, can't talk long._ "

"I need you to help me understand. What happened here? Did the PRT know about Amy being in CRUCIBLE this whole time? What were they doing here?"

" _Here? Are you at PRT HQ?_ "

"Yes, overhead. Answer the question, Dean."

" _We, as in the Wards, just found out. But the directors and others might have known before. CRUCIBLE came to register their hero team. Don't do anything rash, Vicky, as far as I could tell, she doesn't seem to be Mastered._ "

"You met her before she flew away? Why didn't you stop her?!"

" _I—Vicky, I'm a Ward and they're heroes too. I can't just do that_."

"Damn it! Damn it!" Vicky hung up.

Soon as she did so, she noticed her cousin Crystal out of costume flying towards her.

Without any idea where Amy had gone, she sulked and let Crystal reach her.

"Vicky, I heard about what happened. Mom and dad are going to PRT in private to ask for an explanation together with Carol and Mark. Let's go back, and see if we can get some answers," said Crystal.

Victoria kept silent with her fists clenched.

"Come on, Vicky. We're all just as upset as you are," Crystal said, wrapping an arm around Victoria's shoulder and pulling her along.

"Mom doesn't care. She said Amy isn't her daughter. Never was, either" said Vicky.

"She said that? Really?" Crystal looked shocked. "Well, I—I'm sure she didn't mean it. It must be the heat of the moment."

Crystal continued to drag Victoria with her, and Victoria didn't resist. The younger Dallon soon began to sniff and sob in her arms as they quietly flew back to the Pelham residence.

O O O

"You want to know why I let her go?" Piggot gave them a cold look.

"With all due respect, Director Piggot, we'd have appreciated at least being informed about the matter before you made a decision," said Sarah Pelham, official leader of New Wave.

"And I'd have appreciated being informed of all the facts before an investigation," said Piggot.

"I don't understand what you mean, Director," said Sarah with a confused expression.

Piggot glared at Victoria, who looked like she was barely restraining herself from attacking.

Then Piggot moved her glare to Carol and Mark. "How long have you been keeping Panacea under your control with Glory Girl's Master aura?"

The faces of every New Wave member morphed into shock.

"What the fuck? You think Iwas Mastering my own sister? Have you gone senile, Piggot? And it's a Shaker aura!" Victoria shouted.

Piggot closely observed the reactions of New Wave, while Armsmaster stood stoically without making a move. Piggot's face turned sour when she felt an unnatural fear as Glory Girl raised her voice. But she was expecting it, and shrugged it off with some effort. She'd been terrified senseless before, and this was nothing compared to the horror of Ellisburg.

"We only assigned you a Shaker rating to avoid the scary Master label for a public hero. We both know better than that. Poor Amelia Lavere must have hated the people who kidnapped her and broke the unwritten rules to send her father to the Birdcage. But her power was too good for PR and too useful, so you decided to have her Mastered into working for you, huh?"

"What are you going on about, Piggot? That is _not_ what happened. I legally adopted Amy after arresting Marquis, and Victoria did nothing of the sort! Her aura isn't capable of doing anything like that!" Carol finally couldn't stand it and spoke up despite agreeing with her sister beforehand to let Sarah as the leader handle things.

Piggot glanced at Armsmaster, who gave a quiet signal at the back of his suit.

She then raised an eyebrow. "So you really don't know."

"Director Piggot, why are you making this accusation all of a sudden? Is that what Amy herself told you?" Sarah asked.

"Panacea never said so directly, but I have good reason to believe she's staying quiet to protect Glory Girl," said Piggot.

"And what evidence do you have?" Carol interjected again.

"We've analyzed the conversations I had with CRUCIBLE with Thinker power assistance," Piggot said. "From this we have determined that Panacea was indeed Mastered by someone, yet she left New Wave to join CRUCIBLE of her own free will. Since she is quite unwilling to return, and according to you people, she even fought you to escape, yet also does not want the PRT to go after whoever Mastered her. From there, it was simple to piece together the real story. Panacea escaped from a Master inside her own family. The only Master we have on record is Glory Girl, and our Thinkers confirmed that her aura has the potential to Master a victim with long-term exposure."

Victoria's face went white at the last sentence. "B-but, that's not possible! She built up an immunity to it!"

"You mean your aura brainwashed her into a willing victim, until she recently escaped with outside assistance," Piggot mercilessly drove her point home.

"No…no way…did I really…?" Victoria had a sudden flashback to the sheer terror on her sister's face at the end. Her sister was looking right at her then.

"She was afraid of me…" Victoria whispered in realization with a face of agony, and with that, she collapsed backwards, her aura completely disappearing from the room.

"Vicky!" Crystal caught her before she hit the ground.

Piggot heard and saw Victoria's reaction, and that was all she needed to confirm her hypothesis.

"You have no evidence for this! It's just theory and conjecture!" Carol said with anger. "My daughter is _not_ a Master!"

"I think your daughter disagrees. And by your daughter I mean both of them," said Piggot, gesturing towards Glory Girl.

"She was afraid of me…she was _afraid_ of me!" Victoria repeated herself, staring off into the memory only she could see.

"Hey, so _long-term exposure_? I don't think Amy was the only one who got long-term exposure here…" Eric Pelham, the younger brother of Crystal, said with unease.

"Eric!" Sarah shot him a scornful look.

Eric responded sheepishly. "Not blaming anyone, just pointing it out…I don't exactly feel Mastered."

"Director, I assure you we did not know about this before. Still, I think you should have consulted with us before deciding to help Amy talk to the press. This really hurt New Wave's reputation," said Sarah.

"I had nothing to do with that. CRUCIBLE just came here to register their team. The press came on their own initiative, or most likely it was CRUCIBLE themselves that arranged for it. We don't have control over what civilians do outside the PRT building, even if it's at the entrance."

"But if you'd told us sooner, maybe we could have talked to Amy first and sorted things out," said Sarah.

"I will admit we verified her identity before today, but I didn't have the whole story until a few hours ago. Frankly, I think I did you a favor by keeping it a secret. Imagine what would happen if Glory Girl came into contact with Araliac now without knowing what she did. Would you rather have the public find out the truth or see you fighting openly against CRUCIBLE?" Piggot said justifying her actions. She did not admit that her motive for keeping it a secret was to avoid Glory Girl thinking that Piggot was exchanging information for her Wards membership as Glory Girl originally demanded two days again. "But, this is all the more reason for Glory Girl to join the Wards. We need that aura under control."

In the end, New Wave went home in a somber mood. As a team, they decided to accept Piggot's offer to have Victoria join the Wards and avoid prosecution for her excessive force charges and to learn to control her aura.

Dean tried to call Victoria a few times in the evening, but Victoria locked herself in her room and refused to talk to anyone. She simply sat listlessly on her bed through the night until she fell asleep.

O O O


	36. Abjuration 4-1

**Abjuration 4.1**

That night, we began a campaign against the ABB. Through Coil's intel, we'd already identified many of the villain gang's properties, fronts, supply caches, etc.

Our targets were three forced prostitution rings.

The three of us flew through the night sky under the cover of Skitter's bugs. We came to a stop a block away from the first location, watching from the rooftop.

Skitter's newest tranquilizer bugs, courtesy of Araliac, swarmed forth. They were like unnaturally large mosquitoes that could deliver several payloads of sedative before running out, instead of having to restock from a central supply like normal mosquitoes.

The bugs stealthily went inside the building and found their way to every ABB gang member, employee, client, and prostitute.

Within five minutes, every human in the building was down almost all at once. Quiet and efficient. We went in to sweep the place of cash and weapons. Although we had plenty of money now, there was no reason not to take more.

Then we rounded up the unconscious people and woke up the prostitutes, explaining to them their newfound freedom.

Some had family they wanted to go back to, but many didn't know what to do. They had lost everything. A number had been trafficked from overseas and had nowhere to go.

"Is there anything we can do for them?" Skitter asked, looking at the pitiful women who did not seem particularly happy about being free.

"We could leave some contact information and let them work for us in the future. Although we're just three people now, it wouldn't hurt to start thinking about manpower needs as we expand. If they want to fight, we can train them. Otherwise, they can help us with search and rescue, marketing and PR, whatever. I'm sure we can find something useful for them to do," I said.

So we left some contact information for them and called the police over to take care of the rest.

Our next two targets went just as smoothly. These were unpowered gangers and non-combatant employees, after all.

By the time we were done with the third one, it was only eleven. Thanks to our flight capabilities, getting around was really fast. We barely spent two hours on all three operations, and were left wondering if we should keep going.

We quickly came to the conclusion that there was no reason not to press our advantage. While our enemies were unfamiliar with our methods, we could blitzkrieg through them. And Bakuda was especially vulnerable right now, so we went all out.

We began hitting ABB weapons caches and drug distribution joints. We raced through their territory like a storm, silently crushing all resistance.

A few of the places we'd hit had gangers armed with Bakuda's bombs, but they never had a chance to retaliate with them. We were always taking them down from a block away.

It wasn't long before we collected nearly two million in cash, and twice that value in illegal goods. These spoils I had arranged for quiet pick up by Major Heroux's forces so that we wouldn't waste any time transporting it ourselves each time.

There were a few Bakuda bombs at some of the sites, including embedded into human victims. We didn't take any of these. Instead, Araliac removed the bombs from victims, then I had Agate phase all of them out of existence. Trapped in agatespace, they would stay there forever until eventually obliterated by the Chaos energy.

But after hitting six more locations stealthily, Bakuda had been alerted that something was wrong.

Skitter's power wasn't developed enough to listen through her bugs yet, so it was Agate who was spying on the occupants of our next target.

"They've just been ordered to give an update to Bakuda every five minutes. It looks like we can expect reinforcements to come this time if we stay too long, so we'll have to move faster," I said.

The girls nodded, then Skitter sent her bugs to attack right after an update.

As before, the gangers inside the building went down almost simultaneously. Even at the most extreme ends, they held on for no more than five seconds before succumbing to the tranquilizer.

We flew over and immediately prepared to remove the bombs embedded inside forced recruits and gangers.

But just as we stepped inside the building, a loud, and awkwardly non-instantaneous thought came from Agate.

' _GET… OUT…OF…THERE…TIME…SLOW_!'

I reacted immediately and shouted to Araliac and Skitter the same. Araliac grabbed onto me and flew out, while Skitter surrounded herself in bugs and followed right after.

We barely made it back out the door when an explosion blew us away.

I tumbled onto the ground with Araliac, her wings torn but still mostly intact. Our costumes held up, but I felt the some of the heat transfer through it to my body. Our costumes weren't fireproof yet. These organic materials were actually fairly combustible, except for the moisture content.

I raised my head to see the whole building had been destroyed, the ground near it was red hot, and a fire was spreading to nearby structures.

"Fuck!" I swore, getting up painfully and pulling Araliac up with me. Her wings were repaired in short order, and we flew over to Skitter, who was still groaning on the ground, surrounded by scorched bugs. Atlas flew over, and we picked up Skitter and placed her on the beetle before retreating to a nearby rooftop.

We unlocked and removed Skitter's helmet so that Araliac could heal her. She had been slightly behind us and closer to the explosion, taking more damage.

I informed the PRT and fire department, then we stayed there for a moment, mentally recovering.

"They're all dead…" said Skitter, looking at the flaming ruins.

"She sacrificed them to try and get to us," said Araliac.

"She's feeling cornered already. I underestimated her. If we hit any more places, she'll probably do the same. Or worse," I said.

"Damn it! I can't believe it. All those people…" Skitter clenched her fists.

"I think we should stop here for tonight. Let's head back," I said.

We flew back to our warehouse base in silence.

O O O

"So she's basically using all of her victims as hostages now," Amelia said.

"If things go very badly for her, she might try to take the whole city, maybe the whole east coast, hostage. I'm pretty sure that's what her super EMP bomb is supposed to be for."

"We have to find her and stop her at the source," said Taylor. "That's the only way to save the people she kidnapped to work for her."

"Finding her workshop won't be easy. I don't have any helpful 'precognitive' clues as to where it might be," I said, making air quotes. Taylor was already aware that I didn't have real precognition, just knowledge of a limited number of possible timelines. I had already explained to her in between our training sessions the same things I told Amelia about my past minus the rant about whether I really wanted to save the world and the girl who was betrayed at the end.

"Even if we found it, attacking a Tinker in her own workshop is suicidal, especially one of Bakuda's calibre. It's also possible that she'll have it protected from bugs by the time we find it. She does have a habit of expanding her repertoire by analyzing other capes' powers, as we've seen with her bombs, but bombs are far from the only thing she can make."

"Should we work with the Protectorate? Or form an alliance with the villains, like you said happened in other futures," Taylor said.

"You really think the villains will agree to an alliance if it's just Bakuda? She's not doing as much damage to the city by herself and she's basically a newcomer without a reputation," Amelia said. "Besides, the alliance would really only be with E88, considering that Coil's our prisoner, and he was the one that hired the Undersiders, Faultline, and the Travelers, right? And the Merchants, well they're kind of useless. And I don't really want to ally with villains."

"I think I might have an idea…" I said, deep in thought.

O O O

 **Mini-Interlude (Bakuda)**

"Fucking damn it!" Bakuda screamed. She had been listening to the reports coming in of ABB assets getting attacked. The last few days had seen multiple attacks from E88 and the Merchants. Surprisingly, Coil's mercenaries hadn't made any moves despite being quite close to the docks.

But even so, she was barely holding on. As the only cape left in the gang, she had been hiding in her workshop, not willing to face other cape teams outnumbered.

She had tried to hire Uber and Leet, even, but they refused saying that they'd been hired for an exclusive long-term contract.

She didn't have the money to afford hiring Faultline's Crew to protect her crumbling territory if she wanted to keep making bombs.

And tonight, nearly one-third of her remaining assets and locations had been attacked one by one. All of them getting wiped out before support could even arrive.

"I'm going to show them all…shit!" She swore again when she made a mistake with her bomb construction, too angry and frustrated to be as careful as she had to be.

"T-there's a call for you, Bakuda-sama!" A fearful Asian man stammered, stumbling into Bakuda's workshop.

"What the fuck are you doing interrupting my work? Do you want to die?" The last cape in ABB gave him a glare.

"M-my sincerest apologies, Bakuda-sama! A group of men of unknown affiliation took several of our members hostage, and demanded to speak with you!" He quickly explained while holding out a phone.

Bakuda narrowed her eyes and left the Faraday Cage that was her workshop to take the call.

" _Hello, Bakuda._ "

"Who the hell are you?"

" _You might know of me as Coil._ "

"Coil? The fuck do you want? I'm very busy."

" _I expected no less from a genius like you. However, I believe you will find this conversation worthwhile._ "

"If you understand my genius then understand that my time is valuable. Get to the fucking point already, I have bombs to make and people to torture."

" _I would like to make a deal with you. With the defeat of Lung and Oni Lee, the ABB is quite vulnerable. Other groups in the city are all eying your territory, not to mention pressure from the heroes. I would offer you a chance to secure your position._ "

"You, offer _me_ a chance to secure my position? How exactly would you do that?"

" _I have many resources. Money, men, connections. You wouldn't have to rely so much on your forced recruits, which frankly isn't good for business and attracts the wrong kind of attention to our city. I could lend some of my many resources to your use—in a secret capacity, of course—even take some of the pressure from the other gangs off of you, if you would agree to do some things for me from time to time._ "

"Fuck no! You're off your rockers if you think I'm gonna work for you, bastard!" Bakuda grit her teeth when Coil revealed that he was aware of her forcing civilians to work for her.

" _Nothing like that, I assure you. Just a few small favours here and there. It would be more of an alliance and a truce._ "

"I don't need to be allied with you! Once I break Lung and Oni Lee out, the ABB will be stronger than ever!"

" _Are you sure, Bakuda? As a gesture of goodwill, how about I give you a bit of intel? Lung is in a coma. He won't be of any help even if you break him out of captivity. Is it really worth it to rescue a leader that is helpless, when you could be a queen in your own right?_ "

Bakuda was silent for several long seconds.

"What exactly do you want from me?"

" _I understand you've been working on a bomb that would wipe out one-fifth of America's electronic infrastructure?"_

"What? How the hell do you know that? _Nobody_ knows that!"

" _That doesn't matter. As mighty as Lung's rule has been, the ABB as an organization has never been very wealthy. If I give you the resources, can you make more than one such bomb?"_

Bakuda had a weird look on her face. "Of course I can. If I had better materials, I could make it a hell of a lot bigger too!"

" _Is that so? How about a bomb strong enough to erase a continent?_ " The voice asked in a challenging tone.

Now Bakuda stood as if frozen.

" _Bakuda…?_ "

"Hmfuehehe…hahahaha…" Her face twisted and she erupted into a mad fit of cackling.

After nearly a minute, she calmed down. "Tell me more about this alliance."

O O O


	37. Abjuration 4-2

**Abjuration 4.2**

On Thursday morning, the day that in canon would have seen Dinah kidnapped and the Undersiders rob the Brockton Bay Central Bank, our latest exploits had been published to PHO and quickly spread through the news as well.

The vast majority of the commentary was extremely positive. Yesterday, there had even been quite a significant percentage of people criticizing Panacea for not healing anymore, but once the news of us destroying one-third of the ABB's operations came out, the criticism was overwhelmed by people cheering our success.

It was also worth noting that the Undersiders had disappeared. Their former base was empty and I couldn't find Lisa, Brian, or Alec.

Coil's information network found Rachel in a dog shelter, and just like in canon, she had also demolished one of Hookwolf's dogfighting rings.

I was a bit annoyed that I couldn't keep tabs on Tattletale, but it couldn't be helped. In this timeline, Coil never contacted her about the bank job, and because I refused to answer any of Tattletale's calls the last couple of days, she must have gotten spooked.

I also couldn't have Agate track her all day, as I had way more important things for Agate to do.

The only saving grace was that I knew where Brian's apartment was, and his sister Aisha was still within my monitoring, as she hadn't triggered yet.

However, I could contact any of the Undersiders on my own initiative…and I knew I could have leverage over Brian through Aisha as long as he wanted to take custody of her. He would need my help as Coil's replacement to handle the legal issues.

As part of the plan to handle Bakuda, Amelia agreed to use her powers on Coil to turn him temporarily mentally hampered enough to talk and give me the rest of the information needed to take over all of his assets and deal with any fail safes he had in place.

With that, I did a full review of everything I took over and found that I had $70m in personal direct liquid assets—cash and marketable securities, and estimated $150m value in non-liquid assets—real estate, shares in private unlisted businesses, trusts, etc. Through these non-liquid assets, especially the businesses, I also had access and control over even more funds in the form of operating lines, loans, working capital and operating liquid assets that were part of the businesses' general operations. For example, one business had an equity value of $9m, but had $23m in assets under control and $14m in debts owed.

As with any business, the structures could get quite complicated, so I couldn't simply put a number to exactly how much money was under control. There were businesses that were clearly meant to make profit consistently and legally, whose value could be extracted to Calvert's personal funds. There were some that were meant to launder funds into different accounts, without making much profit, or even showing a loss on paper.

Then there were businesses like Fortress Construction and East Pine Security, whose purpose was to use their actual operations to disguise other activities. Fortress Construction was used for building the secret base while publicly building Endbringer shelters, prisons, foreign military bases for the government, high security corporate buildings, etc. East Pine Security was a licensed private armed security company and weapons dealer. It contracted with the US government for foreign deployments and also corporate interests in low civilization countries. A number of the mercenaries at base were actually on East Pine's payroll as well, and went out on legitimate security jobs from time to time.

This was how Calvert produced legitimate paper trails to cover the things he was doing. If nothing else, I had to respect him for his talent and his dedication. With this kind of money, there was no chance of mercenaries betraying him—unless he spent it all on city revitalization, which is what happened in canon.

It was all very impressive. And now it was all mine.

In fact, given the way he had things set up, I was quite sure if he simply took some more loans out, he still could have easily paid his mercenaries enough money to keep their loyalty. But I could understand why things happened the way they did. It didn't _really_ matter who had more money or if Calvert could pay triple—by the time the betrayal happened, the traitor mercs were committed to follow through.

The fact was, the moment the mercs decided to betray Coil, they knew that even if they went back to Coil, they wouldn't be trusted again. Even if Coil promised to pay them triple, he was just as likely to get rid of them afterwards.

During the late night, I had arranged to start sending resources to Bakuda. In the morning, her new access to far better materials and was already bearing fruit. Whereas she had been limited to making bombs out of household items before, I was able to send her high quality refined chemicals and processed raw materials precisely to her specifications.

Unlike almost every other Tinker out there, Bakuda was able to seemingly mass manufacture her bombs. Canonically, she had been able to install hundreds of bombs in all her forced recruits over a matter of days. Perhaps it was because she made consumable items instead of equipment, but whatever the reason, her output once given more proper resources to work with, instead of relying on converting household products, simply skyrocketed.

One might imagine that with all the assets I seized from the ABB, Bakuda would have a good amount of money to work with on her own. The difficulty for her was that most of those assets were tied up in maintaining the gang itself. Even if bombs could force loyalty, she had to spend money to make the bombs in the first place, so for all those old business employees it was better to just keep paying them. She also lacked the right channels to secretly acquire the substances she needed. Coil on the other hand, had plenty of connections to get whatever he needed and cover his trail.

Now with my help, not only was she mass producing chemical and kinetic explosives, she was mass producing smaller bombs and grenades with exotic effects, if her willingness to give me these bombs was any indication.

I wasn't stupid enough to keep them around me where she might remotely detonate them, even if I was clearly beneficial to her right now, so I stored them in Earth M where the signals couldn't possibly reach.

I also gave her intel on the movements and operations of the Merchants and the E88, allowing her to use her own soldiers to launch counterattacks.

I even fed her patrol routes and warnings about PRT and Protectorate responses. While Piggot did upgrade their security and started feeding false information to Coil's old moles, some intensive spying from Agate allowed me to obtain their new passwords, protocols to get into their networks, and she also simply watched in their console rooms to see where their forces were being moved.

Now in full command of Coil's forces, I simultaneously launched my own attacks on the E88.

O O O

" _All units in position,_ " Major Heroux reported.

"Begin," I commanded.

" _Roger that._ "

I saw on my console screen from multiple angles the view of the battle.

One mercenary came out of cover on a nearby rooftop and fired an RPG at the entrance to the warehouse that was an E88 weapons cache.

The door was blasted open, and yells came from inside.

The mercenary with the RPG took cover again and quickly left the scene, returning to the armoured van that served as his team's mobile HQ, parked at a nearby alleyway.

The rest of his team emerged from the alley immediately and rushed the warehouse. Their laser Tinkertech rifles were already firing, smashing through the wall of the warehouse, providing cover for their run.

Nobody dared to come out of the warehouse while they rushed forward, and they lobbed grenades in through the holes, before taking cover behind the parts of the wall that weren't destroyed.

A series of screams could be heard as the pain grenades exploded, then a flashbang went off inside.

The visored and armoured group of six stormed inside and started firing.

Confused and stunned by the pain grenades and flashbang, the E88 members out in the open were easily subdued with rubber electroshock bullets. Those under cover attempted to shoot back with their pistols but achieved nothing against the armour my men were wearing.

It wasn't long before the whole warehouse was taken, and my men began to seize the things and men inside. A cargo truck pulled up on the street and parked in front of the warehouse door.

On another screen I saw Stormtiger and Cricket, two of E88's capes rushing over, along with a group of their foot soldiers. Without any prompting from me, the sniper who was watching them informed Major Heroux, who ordered teams 2 and 3 to get into position to support team 1.

Team 1 stopped what they were doing and took cover inside the warehouse, preparing to camp the incoming capes.

The E88 group came on the scene just as the truck seemingly began driving away. They started shooting with assault rifles at the tires when flash bangs came out of the warehouse onto the street where the E88 group was and they were forced to cover their eyes.

Team 2 emerged from an alleyway in front of them and started shooting rubber bullets.

Stormtiger sent blasts of wind at the incoming fire to deflect it, protecting his group. That was when half of team 2 switched to laser fire targeting Stormtiger, which was unaffected by the wind. Cricket and Stormtiger both effectively dodged the laser fire, but the rubber bullets got though Stormtiger's wind protection while he was distracted trying to dodge.

Several E88 members were hit and went down.

Cricket dashed forward, dodging everything at high speed, intent on taking down Team 2, when a black van pulled up thirty meters behind Stormtiger's group, and Team 3 deployed, lobbing over grenades and opening fire.

Stormtiger reacted quickly and used his wind manipulation to deflect the grenades and gunfire again, but then Team 1 emerged from inside of the warehouse and opened fire as well.

Caught in a pincer, the E88 cape was nearly hit from behind when he spun and his wind blast smashed those bullets aside as well. However, he couldn't protect himself and his foot soldiers, who all went down.

Meanwhile, Team 2 retreated backwards while maintaining fire on Cricket and throwing a canister.

Cricket recognized it as some kind of explosive and dodged backwards.

In the next moment, the canister exploded, flash freezing an area nearly twenty meters in radius, the the edge of it just barely catching Cricket, whose back was covered in frost. She screamed in pain and fell, then two members of Team 2 suddenly pivoted and threw wide range time slow bombs. Cricket wasn't fast enough to dodge the mass area attack while partially frozen.

Team 2 fully re-engaged, firing a hail of rubber electroshock bullets. Although the bullets were slowed down in the affected time slow area as well, because the firing was from outside the bubble, the difference was effectively multiplying the relative rate of fire, and giving Team 2 the extra time to coordinate fire in a way that made it impossible to dodge by covering all of the space around Cricket.

She was inevitably hit and went down.

The time slow bombs were temporary, and when the effect expired, the area was back to normal, with the exclusion of the ice that now covered the street.

Stormtiger was relentlessly deflecting a storm of bullets and dodging lasers from two directions as he retreated into the air from the obviously lost battle.

My men finished taking everything in the warehouse and rounded up all the E88 members including Cricket, before escaping. By the time the PRT arrived, they were long gone.

O O O

Because I was acting as "Coil", these captured criminals weren't handed over to the PRT. Instead, I quietly moved them all to a secluded space on Earth M with the assistance of Major Heroux. With access to Coil's equipment, I was now able to make much more effective restraints instead of relying primarily on the stockpile of super sedative Amelia had made.

I carefully managed several more minor attacks on the E88. Each time my men rapidly moved in and left before the PRT could respond.

Aside from the one battle where I'd captured Cricket, my men also had a very short engagement with Krieg, Victor, and Othala.

If I wanted to, I believed I could have won that battle with Bakuda's bombs, but I gave the order to retreat as soon as the capes were on site.

A big frost bomb covered the street in ice and delayed them enough for my men to make their escape.

These skirmishes allowed Bakuda to regain her footing and start fighting back. It also built up her trust towards the alliance.

Meanwhile, Cricket and the sixteen unpowered E88 prisoners I acquired would serve well for my magical experiments.

While there was little that could be done with Cricket or her power for now, I needed living and sentient test subjects for a particular spell I was working on in between managing my army.

O O O


	38. Abjuration 4-3

**Abjuration 4.3**

I brought the first test subject to an open steppes field in the northern hemisphere of Earth M.

A large tent was set up here for my experiment, on top of a wooden platform. I had the subject tied to a chair, gagged and blindfolded.

He coughed and spat when I removed the gag.

"Listen carefully if you want to go free," I said.

That got his attention. "Alright, I'm listening. Not like I can do anything else tied up like this," he said.

"I like to think I'm a reasonable man. I don't enjoy putting people in jail. Most people think you E88 are just a bunch of irredeemable racists," I said. He looked ready to protest when I continued, "But I know better than that."

"What? You secretly agree with us or something?"

"No. I know that you are redeemable. Everyone is, and everyone deserves a second chance. Even scum like you," I said.

"What the fuck, you some kind of feel good hippie?"

"One would think you wouldn't insult the person offering you a chance to go free."

He was silent for a bit. Then, "Okay, so what you want me to do? Renounce the Empire, confess my sins, and promise to be good?"

"I want you to obey my every command for one week," I said. "And in that week I will reform you. After that, you may go free, regardless of how you think by the end of it."

"Yeah right! You want me to be your fucking slave for a week?"

"You may think of it as harsh discipline. You must commit to accepting my teachings for one week. If you truly believe in the ideals of the Empire, you should not falter so easily after a mere seven days."

"Don't you try to feed me that bullshit. I've read all about what they do in re-education camps!"

"What do you have to lose? If I were ready to use the methods you are imagining, would I even need your consent? I offer you this opportunity in good faith, but if you refuse, then perhaps it will be necessary to resort to more drastic measures."

He stopped responding to me. For the next ten minutes, I sat there waiting for him to change his mind. Eventually, he did.

"Fuck. I'll do it. You'll really let me go for sure?"

"I will. In fact, we can make a blood oath. You E88 like that sort of thing, don't you?"

"Where in the hell did you hear that? We don't do blood oaths."

"Not even for initiation?" I asked in a surprised tone.

"What do you take us for, a frat?"

"Hmm…well no matter. I will give you a blood oath to prove my sincerity, provided you do the same."

"Fucking hippie…"

"Did you change your mind? You want to stay as my prisoner?"

"No, no! I'll do it!" He shouted. Then he muttered under his breath, "Der mist!"

"Good," I said. Then I removed his blindfold, and released one of his bindings so that one hand was free.

He looked at me with contemptuous eyes but I didn't show any signs of noticing, especially behind my Coil mask.

I stood in front of him, and slowly removed one glove, then made a small cut on my palm.

"I hereby swear that you will be allowed to go free exactly at the end of one week from now if you abide by the terms of our contract by obeying my every command for the next week," I said solemnly.

Then I gestured for him to give me his hand. "Now it's your turn. Do you agree to this contract?" I asked.

"I agree to obey you for a week if you release me at the end of it unharmed and without doing anything else to try and stop me from going back to the E88 or wherever I want."

I nodded, and then cut his palm, and shook his hand with my own bloody palm.

I inwardly smirked at his attempt to make sure there weren't any loopholes. He obviously realized that as a cape, I might somehow be able to enforce the contract.

"Satz. Wächter, Meine Worte sind gefallen, lass den Vertrag zustande kommen. Weiß ist schwarz Richtig, Peitsche. Die Vergeltung des Himmels," I said, channeling prana into his hand and blood.

"The fuck? You trying to speak German or gibberish?"

' _I don't think that worked,'_ Agate informed me. ' _Not feeling any connection._ '

' _Must have gotten the chant wrong,'_ I thought back.

' _I don't think the chant really matters,'_ said Agate. ' _I think the problem was his consent. He didn't technically agree to the contract you spoke. Or maybe he was lying and didn't plan to actually follow through.'_

"Your first order: punch yourself," I said.

"Don't fucking mess with me, you bastard! You said you weren't going to do that re-education camp bullshit!"

"Shut up, I said nothing of the sort."

"Where's your fucking _good faith_? I knew you were bullshitting!"

Oh well. I couldn't expect the first one to work.

"Well, you failed already. You can reflect on your failures and try again later," I declared.

"What the fuck? Is this a joke?" He shouted.

I sprayed him with sedative.

O O O

"I agree!"

"Setzt. Wächter, meine Worte haben den Vertrag. Weiß ist schwarz, richtig lässig peitschen. Die Vergeltung von Himmel," I said, channeling prana into his hand and blood.

"What?" He asked in a confused expression.

' _Nope._ '

' _But he clearly agreed this time. It must be the chant then. Maybe my pronunciation was off the first time, I'll try the first chant again.'_

' _I really don't think so…'_

"Satz. Wächter, Meine Worte sind gefallen, lass den Vertrag zustande kommen. Weiß ist schwarz Richtig, Peitsche. Die Vergeltung des Himmels."

"I can't understand you, can you just speak English?"

O O O

"Yes."

"Satz. Meine Worte bilden den Vertrag. Weiß ist schwarz Die Wahrheit. Himmlische Vergeltung," I said, holding out Agate and placing his bloody palm on her.

"Not everyone in the Empire speaks German…and what's with the stick? Is this supposed to be a lesson about touching black stuff?"

' _That didn't work either._ '

' _Damn it. How are we supposed to figure out what Rin chanted like this? I barely remember any of it. There must be millions of possible word combinations._ '

Agate transmitted an image of Rin facepalming to me, followed by an animation with sound as she held one fist to her waist with a big tic mark on her forehead. ' _Shirou, you idiot, stop practicing the pronunciation! The aria doesn't matter! It's just a hypnotic device!_ '

I sighed. This was going to take a while.

' _Maybe you're trying too strong a compulsion. Rin never made Shirou do anything, right? She just stopped him from trying to save Sakura._ '

' _True, but that's just the end effect. What Rin made Shirou_ agree _to was obey everything she commanded while allies for the war, as far as I remember._ '

' _Well, maybe it's because they didn't truly agree, still. They have to really mean it. Like, I bet these guys are holding out, thinking that some awful commands they're just not going to follow when it comes down to it, whereas Shirou seriously meant that he would obey anything Rin said. For example, we know you can't actually use the spell to force someone to kill themselves like with a Command Spell, but Shirou would be okay with_ agreeing _to possibly sacrifice himself. Even if he thought about commands that went against his ideals, he might think something like, "If it's Rin, there must be a good reason, so it's fine" and that way his mindset while agreeing to the contract would be 100% consent._ '

' _Hm…that sounds plausible._ '

O O O

" _Hello, Grue. I hope the team is doing well._ "

"Boss? We haven't heard anything from you for days."

I finally found Brian back at his apartment, and took the chance to contact him alone. Aisha had gone to school.

" _Yes. I apologize for being unreachable. For a number of reasons, it was not safe to make contact sooner. Recent developments in the city have been very disruptive._ "

"Yeah, I can see why that could make things difficult. The team's fine, but we've been keeping on the down low while we couldn't get in touch with you."

" _You made the right call. The city is now in a state of open war between the gangs. The fallout from Lung and Oni Lee's capture has been beyond even my expectations. The military is being prepared to mobilize, and the PRT is in a state of continuous high alert._ "

"No kidding. I've been hearing gunfire and explosions throughout the day."

" _I have a new job for you now, if you feel comfortable with a quick trip to the docks. The chance of any combat on this one should be very low, but the area itself is fairly dangerous at the moment. I just need you to create darkness cover at a designated location and time._ "

"That sounds pretty easy for us. I don't think anyone on the team will oppose," he said.

" _The rest of your team isn't strictly necessary. The only thing I need is your darkness. You can bring the others for safety if you want, but either way I am paying you a fixed $15,000 for the job. It's your call if you want to split it or do it yourself._ "

He hesitated for a moment. "There won't be any combat?"

" _Unless you get caught up in a gang fight, there shouldn't be. All you have to go is go there, cover the area in darkness for a few minutes, and leave. That's it. Escape is what the Undersiders are best at, isn't it? You can also cover more than just that area in darkness if you want to give yourself more cover._ "

"Alright. I'll take the job."

O O O

"Bakuda. How are the ABB doing? Any issues with the shipments?" I spoke into the phone.

" _The ABB is doing great. And I need more supplies._ "

"Really? I heard on the grapevine that you're still losing territory."

" _That's none of your business, Coil! Stop fishing for information. We don't need that useless territory anyway, all we need are my bombs._ "

"Bakuda, do I need to remind you of our agreement? You need to avoid endangering civilians and reduce forced recruitment. I don't have any problem with you making more bombs, but word is that the military is watching the situation now. If civilian casualties start piling up, it won't be good for anybody here if the PRT comes down hard with out of town heroes."

" _I've kept to the agreement, bastard! If it weren't for these restrictions I'd have wiped the E88 off the map by now! Is that all you called to say?"_

"No, I actually have intel you might be interested. You know about Grue, yes?"

" _Grue, of the Undersiders? Why the fuck would I care about him?_ "

"He has an interesting power, with a useful effect. If you could make bombs that replicated his darkness, it would have strong strategic applications for assisting your forces in retreating from after an engagement. It also has signal blocking properties, something that might trouble your bombs if you don't find a way to counter it."

" _Don't beat around the bush all the time. You obviously want me to make bombs based on his power for you._ "

"I admit that is one motivation, but you can't deny that there are benefits to you as well."

" _I'm going to need to access his power for scanning to make those bombs. You think we can capture him?"_

"No, but I know exactly when and where he's planning to be for a job. He always uses his darkness to make his escape, so if you just hide nearby, you can scan his power while it's covering his retreat. There's hardly any risk of confrontation if you play it safe."

" _I'm not afraid of fighting the Undersiders._ "

"But why risk it when you're low on manpower, when you don't have to? Better to get what you need than risk E88 or PRT coming along to interfere."

" _I'll make that judgement for myself._ "

I smiled. She took the bait, as I expected. This would make things easier. "Then, he's going to be at…"

O O O

Araliac and Skitter carefully hid themselves near the designated spot I sent Grue to.

The darkness expanded quickly and covered a block of the street at the docks.

After waiting for a few minutes, Skitter spoke into her comms. "Found her."

With this, Skitter tracked Bakuda all the way back to her workshop, and combined with some more spying from Agate, we learned about the tricks she had up her sleeve. Hidden control mechanisms, override remotes, warp bombs, agony (higher intensity) bombs, full time stop bombs, chain disintegration bombs, siliconization bombs, etc. Things that she didn't sell to "Coil", but nothing special that I wasn't already expecting. Still, it was best to be cautious.

On the street, things weren't looking good for Bakuda. While her offensive power was extreme, she wasn't turning any of that into successfully claimed territory and profit. Instead, as the war dragged on, the E88 had successfully taken out even more of her gang assets.

Unlike canon, Bakuda didn't have the leadership capability to really manage her gang. Without Lung, she hadn't been able to recruit nearly as many people, even by force, or deploy them effectively, on top of the restrictions from her agreement with "Coil".

Her core ABB members were dwindling, and the forced recruits were not effective combatants.

By Saturday night, she had agreed to a face-to-face meeting with "Coil".

O O O


	39. Interlude 4-a

**Interlude 4.a**

A black van pulled up beside the abandoned warehouse, and what appeared to be a man in Coil's costume came out, flanked by five mercenaries.

The group walked inside where Bakuda was standing in the center of the warehouse, waiting. She was in her full body costume with the gas mask, goggles, and wires. She was wearing black metallic armour overlaid with a red jacket and yellow boots. Seven men in ABB colours were visibly standing near her.

The warehouse was large and had many shipping containers lying around. There were no lights on except several flashlights positioned in strategic places and a single portable light behind the ABB gangers. All set up by Bakuda, who had been waiting here for Coil to arrive.

"Bakuda. You have quite the theatrical flair," said Coil once he stood only five metres away from her.

"Coil? Fuck, you're skinny. Seriously, your ribs are showing," said Bakuda.

"It's not easy being a crime lord in Brockton Bay. I'm sure you've gotten familiar with that over the past few days."

"Tch. So, how's this gonna work? We going to make small talk until we have a good enough 'rapport'?" Bakuda asked, making air quotes with one hand, holding her grenade launcher pointed to the ground with the other.

"A crude way of putting it, but that is correct. If our alliance is to be sustainable, we must be comfortable with each other's goals, methods, and personalities," said Coil.

"Look, I don't give a flying fuck about any of that. I need money and materials to build my bombs, and some help to break out Oni Lee and Lung. You want to use my bombs for yourself. Seems simple enough to me. What else do you know want to know?"

"The exchange is simple, yes. But you have a preference for doing things in a way that isn't good for business, getting the wrong kinds of attention to our fair city. I find your methods of… _recruitment_ …distasteful, but I can understand it. Yet, I now find myself concerned as to what you might do with even more firepower. You have been lashing out, dealing damage, but you haven't been able to hold on to any territory. This is not sustainable. Are you truly capable of being the leader of the ABB?"

"I'm a fucking genius, there's nobody better to be in charge. Weren't you the one who said I should be a queen of my own? The hell are you—"

She was cut off by a strangled cry from behind her. She turned around to see six of her guys slumping to the ground and the last one clutching his neck before joining them.

"What the fuck?! Coil, you—"

"This meeting's been compromised! Retreat!" Coil yelled and ran for the exit.

Suddenly a vast swarm of bugs emerged from the shadows, blocking the way to the exit.

Like a locust, the bugs came from the ceiling, walls, shipping containers, and every dark crevice.

Bakuda ran for the other exit and started firing grenades at the bugs. "ABB with me!" She yelled. When there was no response, she swore.

Coil's men were firing their laser rifles already, cutting through the swarm but any losses were simply replaced by yet more bugs.

Their vision was blocked by the dense gathering of insects, and they were unable to get to the door.

Bakuda's grenades exploded into balls of fire and ice, destroying large sections of bugs along with the walls of the warehouse, but bugs were already climbing up her costume.

She dropped another grenade on her person, and this time its invisible explosion stunned all of the bugs on and around her. She barely moved two steps before tripping over a spider silk wire, and then spiders the size of soccer balls dropped on to her, eliciting a scream.

Another pain grenade stunned the spiders as she hastily attempted to crawl away, leaving a large canister behind.

Coil and his men were already completely covered in bugs and screaming when the huge spiders got to them. Half the spiders proceeded to spit sticky goo on them while the other half started spinning very thick silk to wrap them up.

When Bakuda's canister exploded, this time the explosion was massive and flash froze half the warehouse.

Bakuda herself apparently survived by detonating a minor heat grenade right beside her, forming a small sphere of protection. She scrambled back up and dashed for the door again when it blew open from the other side, ice shattering.

Vines as thick as human arms burst in. One vine went straight for Bakuda's chest and unfurled at the tip to reveal a sharp extrusion that speared into the base of Bakuda's neck, going straight through her armor, while the vines massed around and wrapped her limbs and neck, holding her in the air. Bakuda went limp, seemingly paralyzed or unconscious.

On the other side of the door was Araliac casually walking in, with Polychromic right behind her.

Shortly after that, the unconscious and silk wrapped bodies of many more ABB were dragged out of the shadows from their hiding places.

Skitter entered from the opposite door where Coil and his men were lying down, also unconscious.

All of the defeated criminals were rounded up.

Araliac started removing the bombs from inside of the ABB members. The camera angle moved and flew towards Skitter, who held out a hand to receive the thing that was carrying the camera and flipped it.

Then the camera shifted to Polychromic's POV watching Araliac remove bombs from the ABB, with Skitter standing to the side, in her hands a palm sized beetle with a camera attached to its head.

The voice of Polychromic began narrating with subtitles. "When CRUCIBLE attacked ABB assets earlier in the week, we uncovered that Bakuda had been forcibly recruiting innocent civilians, installing bombs inside of them and their loved ones to ensure their cooperation. We knew then that continuing to engage Bakuda's ABB head on was not an option. While Bakuda was hidden, they were hostages that could be executed at any time."

The video shifted to the scene right when the ABB weapons cache exploded, from the POV of Araliac, complete with tumbling and shaking, ending with turning to see Skitter and Polychromic struggling back up and the flaming ruins of the building.

The voice then changed to Araliac's.

"These people were victims, not criminals, and they needed to be saved."

That sentence coincided with the display of a girl in Immaculata uniform. She was unconscious and laid on the ground, with Araliac's hand holding her head. A tumor-like bulge appeared at the back of her head, the hair moving aside and flesh expanding out until it split through the middle, bone and flesh wrapped around thin wiring and a small black device with a blinking red light emerging from the crevice. The bomb was carefully ejected while the bone, flesh, and hair were molded back into the right shape.

The video flashed again and again to different scenes of other ABB victims, then to a view of a basement of a hideout with ABB members patrolling around.

The voice changed to Skitter's.

"We changed tactics, investigating Bakuda's activities. We found that she had recruited over a hundred victims this way. Even worse, she had allied with Coil, who was now funding her bomb creation."

The video flashed momentarily back to a cut of the earlier scene with Coil talking to Bakuda, the part where he said "Are you truly capable of being the leader of the ABB", the volume playing at a lower level, before changing to a map of the USA.

"But even her ally Coil became nervous when he learned that Bakuda was creating a nine-thousand kiloton bomb that would wipe out the US east coast. An EMP that would take out a fifth of North American electronic infrastructure."

A red dot appeared on the location of Brockton Bay, and a dark wave expanded from the dot, drawing out the estimated radius of damage.

The voice changed back to Araliac.

"We learned about this meeting between Bakuda and Coil, and we knew this was our best chance to prevent a terrible catastrophe."

Now Polychromic stood with Araliac and Skitter in front of a dark background.

"As soon as Bakuda was defeated, CRUCIBLE swept through the remaining ABB strongholds, and rescued all the victims!"

The video flashed numerous times to different ABB facilities and shots of unconscious, captured ABB and victims with Araliac and Skitter standing over them.

"Coil too, was defeated, and his own organization has already scattered to the winds without their leader!"

Then the video flashed to a short scene where the CRUCIBLE three were looking around what appeared to be a small basement bunker.

"It's empty. There's nobody here," said Araliac, coming out of a room not on-screen.

"Looks like they ran away pretty fast. They left the drugs," said Skitter, pulling out a bag of powder.

"They were all hired mercs, not loyal mafia. I'm not surprised," Polychromic said, rifling through some papers left on a desk.

The view turned back to the team standing in darkness.

"The ABB and Coil's Organization are no more! We, CRUCIBLE, have destroyed them for their crimes, and their ill-gotten gains will now be used to advance our mission! Today, we have taken another great step towards our goal of making Brockton Bay a safe and crime-free city. But the fight is not over. Let this be a warning to all those who continue to prey on the helpless, and an inspiration for all those who wish to join us in the fight against evil!" My voiced boomed as I made dramatic gestures.

The view faded away.

Text floated up slowly.

 _Shortly after midnight on April 17_ _th_ _, CRUCIBLE defeated the supervillains known as Bakuda and Coil_ , _taking them into custody._

 _The same night, CRUCIBLE dismantled the criminal gang known as "Azn Bad Boyz"._

 _The criminal gang known as "Coil's Organization" fled and deserted their hideouts before they could be apprehended._

 _Both gang's contraband have been seized pending processing with local authorities._

 _All captured gang members and hostage victims are currently being held in a secure CRUCIBLE facility. We will be organizing and coordinating the release of the hostage victims to their families and loved ones with BBPD. In the mean time, all victims have received emergency care and will have their basic needs met._

 _Bakuda's bombs were recovered or disabled, and are now being held in a maximum security facility so that they may be deployed against future Endbringer attacks and S-class threats._

 _We have taken a great leap forward in the war against crime in Brockton Bay. But it is not enough. We shall remain vigilant._

 _Do your part and help us spread the message._

 _Be the change you want to see in the world._

 _Please like, follow and share._

The text flashed on screen with CRUCIBLE's social media account handles as the video ended.

O O O


	40. Abjuration 4-4

**Abjuration 4.4**

The night after the meeting with Bakuda we had a lot of clean up to do.

I had let Bakuda choose the location of the meeting, then spied on her to find where it was before she told Coil. All of her preparations and ambushes came to naught as we saw all of it beforehand, then crashed the meeting between her and fake Coil.

Even though Bakuda tried to scan for monitoring devices when she arrived, I just waited until she was done scanning to get Skitter to bug the warehouse, and we ended up filming the whole encounter.

Bakuda herself had been too paranoid to try and rely on anyone but her own gang as backup, and there weren't really any other options for her in the city even if she wanted to bring anyone else. So the meeting was kept secret, and we completed the plan without a hitch.

The mercenaries who had been with fake Coil had been identified by myself, Heroux and Reynolds as being disloyal and an obstacle to my future ambitions, so they were not informed of the true nature of the operation.

The vast majority of Coil's organization, despite being under my effective control, had still believed it was Coil running the show.

The Coil body double was released back into my employ for a job well done.

Bakuda was taken prisoner and moved to Earth M in a separate containment area from Calvert.

We did not stick around to give any statement to the PRT, nor did we notify them immediately. Instead, we stealthily mopped up the rest of the ABB first and went around to some of Coil's other hideouts and bunkers to film some other useful scenes.

This was supposed to be Taylor's big win, and we had to make sure we looked good.

And it was important that the public focus on how much good we did rather than some of the implications of what we had done.

That night we also seized all ABB assets that could be liquidated and moved Bakuda's workshop as well as all of her bomb supply to Earth M.

Like with Calvert, Bakuda was forced to tell us how to move everything safely by way of Amelia's narcosynthesis. She couldn't make a full truth serum, but it was fairly effective if she induced and managed the effect directly via touch.

Still, I had Coil's grunts now to do the dangerous work for us, so I ordered Major Reynolds to send some men to handle it instead of risking any traps going off if Bakuda omitted anything.

"Kaleidus, why do we need to move her workshop too?" Amelia asked me as we sat back in Coil's comms room watching the work being done by Reynolds' men.

"Bakuda's bombs are too valuable for us to pass up. She has one of the only powers that are effective on Endbringers. She'll need her tools to help us make more bombs and maintain the ones we've already taken," I said. "I'm sure we can find a way to persuade her to cooperate eventually."

She gave me a hesitant look. Then she looked to Taylor who was trying her best to make herself look smaller.

"I agree," she said quietly without making eye contact. I had discussed this with Taylor privately beforehand and found that she was very supportive of making Coil and Bakuda work for us, but wasn't willing to say it out loud before when Amelia didn't volunteer the use of her power. This, on top of Amelia now being her only female friend, made her very uncomfortable voicing her actual opinion.

"Well, if you guys both agree…" Amelia trailed off and didn't say any more.

Other than that, we worked on planning out the video we were going to upload, but this time instead of editing it all myself, I had hired a freelance video producer to be on standby to work on this overnight. A professional team would have been better quality but getting a team like that to do overnight work was not easy.

I was going to hire a dedicated marketing agency or building an internal marketing department next, but there hadn't been enough time to do it yet.

Instead, for now I had to be satisfied with just hiring a bunch of shills and paid influencers to share and promote our stuff all over the web.

Meanwhile…

Major Heroux and Reynolds and with the Coil body double were gathered in a conference room at Coil's base. Heroux and Reynolds sat on one head of the table, Coil on the other.

Captains Reed, Bateman, and O'Donnell filed into the room and Coil gestured for them to sit at the long edge.

Agate floated opposite them in the air, wreathed in a dark billowing flame-like cloud, to signify the active presence of their true master.

The captains looked slightly confused as to the sitting arrangement and Agate at the front.

Coil stood up. "Captains, tonight I have the honor of introducing you to our organization's true sponsor, Lord Infinity," he said, gesturing to Agate. "This is his avatar."

" **Good evening, gentlemen** ," Agate spoke in a deep metallic voice.

The captains nodded with only slight hesitation and gave curt greetings.

" **We have called you here tonight because you have earned a seat at this table, as our organization moves into the next phase of its development. The reports from Coil speak well of your performance, and Majors Heroux and Reynolds have had nothing but praise for your loyalty**."

We said that so these captains would understand the reporting structure in which both Coil and the Majors reported directly to me, and to give Heroux and Reynolds additional authority, giving the appearance that they were previously my secret agents in the organization that had been observing everyone else.

The captains showed the barest hint of surprise on their faces and only Bateman snuck a glance at the two we identified as Majors.

" **Tomorrow, our organization will undergo a significant restructuring. Before we explain what will happen, Major Heroux will share with you some observations about the state of the world and our organization's true aims.** "

Major Heroux stood up, and Agate flew to the side while a holo-projection appeared over the white wall showing a professional slidedeck.

"Earth Bet has been slowly collapsing under the strain of the Endbringer attacks and cape violence. World economies have stagnated despite the introduction of Tinkertech based new technologies, due to the destruction of cities every three months. Today, numerous countries have already fallen to cape warlords and totalitarian rule."

Heroux manipulated the slide with a pointer and showed a world map, which then highlighted key points.

"The greatest concentration of independent cape warlords is in Africa, which has historically suffered from lack of effective government and frequent ethnic warfare," he said. Several red points were enlarged. "The chaos has reached the point where conventional governments have generally collapsed around these clusters, replaced entirely by roaming warlords and mercenary groups. Reed and O'Donnell have had some personal experience with this with East Pine's work, isn't that right?"

Lines encompassing much of Namibia, Angola, Botswana, South Africa, the Congo, and West Egypt demarked the known "collapsed" areas.

"Yeah, we were in Botswana for a little bit. It was pretty bad over there, must have been like seventeen different factions vying for control. Twenty years ago it was a miracle of prosperity and growth, a real diamond in the rough. Think they used to call it the African tiger or some shit. By the time we arrived in '08 it was just another bloody dump like the rest of shitholes around it," said Reed.

"There for three months and didn't even get to swipe any diamonds," O'Donnell said with a head shake and a sigh.

Heroux gave a chuckle before continuing.

"Africa is quite the mess now, but what we're seeing isn't simply an extension of the chaos that's historically been there since the end of the colonial era. Similar fragmentation and disorder has appeared across the world, particularly following a major Endbringer attack, such as in Japan and Russia. The destruction of Canberra in February is already showing similar trends for Australia. Even places relatively untouched by Endbringers such as China and the UK have suffered from revolution and rebellion."

The slide deck continued to show various images of the different areas Heroux mentioned.

"I think you three understand where I'm going with this. None of us would be in this business if we thought we could get by with a nice cushy desk job with a stable pension to retire with a few decades later. Times have changed. There's never been such high demand for private security. For now, the greenback is still king, and cash can buy safety. But sooner or later, when enough cities are hit by the Endbringers, when the criminal elements start overwhelming the lawful authorities, the rest of the world is going to start looking more and more like Africa…"

He paused to observe the three captains.

"Might as well make bank and live it up before everything goes to hell, is that what I'm hearing, boys? YOLO!" Bateman said with a hearty cackle and slapped O'Donnell on the back.

O'Donnell glared and growled back. "Keep your hands and retarded ideas to yourself, Bateman. I don't think Lord Infinity would have invited us here just to tell us how society is going to collapse without a plan in mind."

"Just tryin' to lighten up the mood here, man, don't be such a downer," Bateman said, huffing and crossing his arms.

Heroux glanced at Agate, who made no move to interfere.

"That's enough. Nothing wrong with a joke every once in a while, but O'Donnell is right. When civilization crumbles, you will have two choices. Number one: you can work for a faction vying for control of dirt, scraps, and ruined cities."

Images of the ruins of Moscow, Japan, and burning and destroyed towns in Africa, all played on screen again.

"For everyone else, that's the _only_ choice," Heroux said, raising his voice.

He pointed dramatically at the three captains. "You, however, have earned with your performance and loyalty a seat at this table," he said, moving his finger to point at the table.

"And by sitting here tonight, you are receiving the opportunity to make an alternative choice!"

With a flourish, Heroux gestured with both hands to Agate, who floated back to the center at a higher altitude as Heroux shifted to the side.

The lights in the room dimmed slowly until the only source remaining was the haunting glow of Agate's billowing aura of purple and red.

"To follow Lord Infinity, who shall lead us to new and rich lands beyond the reach of the Endbringers. While the rest of Earth Bet shall fight over leftover ruins, Lord Infinity shall establish an empire across countless worlds!" Heroux shouted.

Simultaneously, below Agate a glowing white line cut through the air and slowly expanded into a shimmering portal. Bright daylight filtered in to the room.

"What the fuck!" Bateman exclaimed with wide eyes.

O'Donnell was visibly surprised, but said nothing.

Reed blinked a few times before speaking up. "Is that another dimension? Like Aleph?"

" **Correct.** " Agate flew down and moved right in front of them.

" **Tonight marks the end of the criminal gang known as Coil's Organization. If you choose to continue working for us, you will be held to a higher standard. You will no longer be simple mercenaries, but the beginning of a true disciplined army with a dedicated cause! As such, you will be required to swear your allegiance to us. Otherwise, you are free to quit and leave unharmed, so long as you swear never to reveal what you learned in this room. What is your choice?** "

There was a long moment of silence as the captains looked at the portal, Agate, and themselves with varying degrees of surprise and wariness.

"Can we think about it?" Bateman asked with complete seriousness.

" **You have 5 minutes.** "

Heroux sat back down.

The time passed slowly in silence as the three men grew visibly unnerved by the unrelenting stares of Heroux and Reynolds. Coil continued to sit silently to the side without the slightest move.

"So, hypothetically speaking, if I just want to stay a free mercenary, you really don't have a problem with that? You'll let me go safely, without any tricks?" Bateman finally asked after three minutes had passed.

"Lord Infinity has no need of tricks. If he says you're free to quit unharmed, then you're free to quit unharmed." Heroux said.

" **You will be allowed to leave unharmed and without pursuit. If you truly wish to remain a hired mercenary, my agents may have other, less lucrative jobs for you in the future. But we will require an oath of silence from you. We warn you now that it will be binding, and we will know if you lie, in which case you will be silenced by other means.** "

"Ah…of course," said Bateman as he nodded with a forced smile.

"I will accept," O'Donnell said suddenly.

" **Good.** **Go through the portal and wait on the other side.** "

He got up and did as told.

"Well if O'Donnell's doing it, I might as well too," said Reed, who got up to go through the portal without prompting.

Bateman remained seated as he watched the other two look around the grass and the river in the distance curiously. O'Donnell took out his phone momentarily before putting it away.

" **Time's up. What is your choice, Captain Bateman?** "

He stood up abruptly, face full of sweat. "Alright, alright. I'm in."

Once the three captains were gathered on the other side, Agate floated over as well, then Coil and the Majors followed shortly after.

" **You have chosen well. Kneel.** "

Agate continued after they each got down on one knee.

" **Lord Infinity offers you the honor of vassalage, protection, and awards as you deserve according to your service. You renounce any other master, and submit to him and his will. You swear to be true and faithful to your lord, to obey his commands and give aid voluntarily, and you shall never with will or action, do or cause, or allow by knowing inaction, that which is displeasing or harmful to your lord, his recognized subjects, or his possessions. Do you agree and swear this upon your soul?** "

"Yes." "I agree." "Alright."

" **Fill. Set. Bind. Life is the essence, soul is the foundation. Your oath is sworn and acknowledged by the three words of power.** "

Through Agate, I felt three new connections being established.

O'Donnell and Reed both shivered with a hitched breath. Bateman gasped and grasped at his heart.

" **It is done.** **Return to the conference room for additional instructions.** "

With that, Agate phased out, and the group was led back to the room to be debriefed on the official surrender and merging of Coil's Organization to CRUCIBLE.

The two Majors and the Coil double had given me their own oaths already. It was the first thing I did after successfully replicating the Geas spell in my experiments.

They were minor curses that caused discomfort when attempting to go against me, and outright immobilized them if I directly commanded it.

There was still room for improvement, but it would have to do, for the expendable ones.

Even if it didn't completely prevent them from betraying me, they would have to think twice as they didn't know exactly what the consequences would be.

O O O


	41. Interlude 4-b (Tattletale)

**Interlude 4.b (Tattletale)**

Lisa got off the bus at the Boardwalk and walked the rest of the way to the abandoned factory at the docks that was the Undersiders' lair.

On a Monday morning, the Boardwalk was unusually sparse with tourists. Still, there were enough of them around that she kept her power off to avoid triggering an endless stream of irrelevant information. She only had so much to use before getting a splitting headache for the rest of the day, after all. She had to conserve her uses, and she'd already used it quite a bit today watching the latest video posted by CRUCIBLE.

Lisa walked through the maze of barely distinguishable warehouses, garages, and factories easily. The graffiti and worn walls were enough for her to find her way, even if she hadn't gotten familiar with the area over many months of operating nearby with her team.

It wasn't long before she was just a few buildings away.

She turned on her power then and scrutinized the surrounding places for hiding spots where there could be people spying or ambushes.

There was nothing that she could detect. None of Coil's mercs, who sometimes stationed nearby.

She closed the distance and pushed through the door beside the Redmond Welding sign and headed up stairs. Brutus, the big dog, greeted her with a bark at the base of the stairs, then followed her up.

The first person she saw was Rachel, who came out on account of Brutus' barking, and just gave her nod before heading back in to the loft.

Inside, Alec was playing a video game as usual, while Brian sat beside him watching him play.

The nominal leader of the Undersiders looked over. "Hey Lisa. Glad you could make it."

"Hey Tats." Alec gave her a glance before his eyes darted back to his game.

She gave Brian a smirk. "If our fearless leader is calling, how could I miss it?"

"You're the fearless one, Lisa. I seem to remember you were the one that suggested we look for Lung after Oni Lee, instead of running away from the raging dragon."

"It isn't fearless if I knew we would have been fine," she said, tapping her head.

Brian didn't know about the timelines Coil used. But Lisa did, and she knew that if their boss ordered them to look for Lung, he probably had a backup timeline where they did run away, in case things went badly.

Although she didn't work for Coil one-hundred percent by choice, she would be lying if she said she didn't feel safer having that kind of assurance when they went up against the crazies that didn't care for the unwritten rules.

The Undersiders were in it for the fun playing cops and robbers with the dress-up heroes, and getting burned alive wouldn't be fun at all.

"Right, right," said Brian.

"So, what's up, Brian? You said the boss contacted you?" Lisa asked.

It was strange, and she didn't like it. Coil always went through her when he communicated with the team. Even though he could contact the others at any time, and did do so when dealing with their private matters—like Brian's custody suit—anything team-related he'd go through her.

While Brian was the nominal leader, she was supposed to be Coil's liaison.

And she hadn't been able to get into contact with him for an entire week. That was why she'd suggested for the team to lay low for while, in case something happened.

The last time she spoke to Coil a week ago, he'd been intent on getting the dirt on the new capes that took down Lung, and ordered her to find out about them too.

She had been half convinced that Coil finally bit off more than he could chew trying something with a precog that might have been even more powerful than himself. They managed to execute exactly the right steps to persuade someone as famous as Panacea to join willingly and leave her own family, then predicted exactly how to defeat Lung with bugs and tranquilizer, after all, what's to say they couldn't have foreseen exactly how to take down Coil in spite of his power as well?

But she was only half convinced, not one-hundred percent, because Coil's men were still out and about.

The best guess she had come up with was that Coil's civilian identity had been close to being compromised, so he was avoiding unnecessary contact. The PRT had suddenly vamped up security, and the old passcodes to their network that Coil gave her stopped working. She could find a way around that, eventually, but for now she was cut off from her best sources of intel.

"Yep. He called me on Friday to apologize for being unreachable, and gave me a solo job. I did it Saturday and got paid yesterday. I'm pretty sure it was legit."

Lisa had her power on momentarily as Brian answered. The micro-expressions on his face clued her in to the fact that it wasn't quite a solo job. He could have shared it, but he didn't. And he was now justifying it to himself as being testing out the waters to see if it was legitimate.

If he hadn't been greedy, the proper thing to do would have been to get her to analyze whether it was legit or not.

But she guessed that Coil must have offered a sweet deal for doing it alone as well as the option of doing it as a team. Brian wasn't the type to do things behind the team's back, so Coil must have wanted him to make that choice—not just to do it alone, but for him to _decide_ to do it alone, otherwise he wouldn't have presented the choice at all. Why? To create a crack in the team?

"A solo job? Mind telling the rest of us the juicy details?"

"He just asked me to use my power to cover a block at the docks Saturday morning. I went in, did it. Left. No trouble. That's it."

Normally, she would have known about something like that through the PRT networks. Now though? She had to find out from Brian himself, and didn't know what it might have been for. She knew Coil had been fighting the E88 and backing up the ABB, and ABB territory was in the docks, so it might have been to help any of their forces escape after a battle.

"Right. So we're back in the game?" She asked.

"Well, there's no new job for the team or anything like that. Boss is supposed to contact you as usual, and he said he would be occupied for a while. We're still going to get our monthly paycheck, but I'm guessing there won't be any specific requests for a while. So I was thinking, if you guys wanted to do something, we've basically got a free hand to plan whatever we want."

"You know, Brian, normally I'd be all for some fun time with you guys, but I feel like you might not be aware of something _reeeaallly_ important that happened last night," she said.

"Two gangs in town just bit the dust. That what you mean?" Alec piped up.

"Yeah. That."

"What? What do you mean?" Brian asked with wide eyes, looking between Lisa and Alec.

"It was all over PHO this morning, even in-game chat in the lobbies. The ABB and Coil are done," said Alec. He put down his controller then leaned back and pointed at the TV screen that was connected to his gaming machine. "Look, there's even people talking about it right now."

"Mind pulling up the vid so we can watch on the big screen, Alec?" Lisa asked.

"Anything for you, Tats."

Brian and Rachel watched and listened closely.

"Fuck. These guys aren't messing around. Those mutant bugs are scary as shit," said Brian at the end.

"Good old Panacea's work. Or Araliac now," said Lisa. "A week ago, Skitter was a newbie using spiders with lethal venom, now with Panacea's help she's upgraded to big monster spiders that can wrap whole people in their webs. And that's only the stuff they were willing to upload onto the internet."

"I think…I liked the kind healer at the hospital more," said Brian.

"We can take them," said Rachel with a growl.

"At least the crazy chick putting bombs in people's heads is gone. She might have come after us next if Lung were still around," said Alec.

"So, what does this mean for us? Are you worried about them coming after us if we do another job?" Brian asked.

"Kinda. Don't know if we're really on their radar yet, but they seem pretty serious about their mission to root out villainy. They don't seem to care about playing nice with the rules either. Right at the end here? See how they said they took Bakuda and Coil into custody? Sounds like they're not planning to hand them over to the PRT."

There was a moment of silence in the loft as the rest of her team processed that.

"They can't do that, can they? I mean, they're registered heroes," Brian said with a disbelieving look.

"There wasn't any press release from the PRT about the arrest. It's almost noon and they've been completely silent. I don't think CRUCIBLE care what the PRT thinks, and I think the PRT might be scared too, because they took Bakuda's bombs," Lisa explained.

"Including the one they're saying can wipe out the east coast," said Brian with a nod.

"And I've got a good hunch that they put that in the video to make sure the right people understood that they have nuclear level firepower now. If they kept it secretly for themselves, it'd be hard for anyone to find out, but they purposely showed just how much destruction it's supposed to be capable of."

"You're saying they're keeping it as a threat in case they get on the PRT's bad side?"

"I'm saying that with the precog on their team, they know exactly what they're doing. They know they're going to butt heads with the PRT soon, and they're not planning to back down. Illegally keeping cape prisoners is only the tip of the iceberg."

"But why?"

Lisa didn't immediately answer. Inside, she was struggling to make a decision. When she saw that video, she noticed something else, something that put all the pieces together for her.

"Guys…I have something I need to tell you," she said finally.

She looked around at her team who looked curiously back at her.

"Our secret boss was Coil," she said.

"You're shitting me…?!" Brian shouted. "The same Coil that was just captured?"

"Way to drop a bomb on us Lisa," said Alec.

"Not exactly. That Coil was a fake. A body double," said Lisa.

"Wait, so, our boss is still kicking?" Brian asked.

"No…not exactly," said Lisa.

"Alright, I'm lost. How about you just explain the whole thing to us, Lisa."

She sighed.

"It's like this. I was thinking about what happened to the boss ever since we lost contact with him. I thought he had to have been in trouble, but I wasn't sure how much until I saw this video. You see, this body double? My power told me he was acting the whole time. Everyone else in there didn't know about CRUCIBLE's ambush, not even his own men, but he did, and he was just playing along at being captured," said Lisa.

"You mean the whole thing was a setup? It was staged?"

"Bakuda thought she was the one setting the trap, but CRUCIBLE has a really powerful precog, so they turned it around on her. The thing is, why would Coil's body double be in the know too, and why wouldn't he be concerned about being captured? The only way that makes any sense is if he was actually a CRUCIBLE secret agent. But is he just a CRUCIBLE agent? Or a Coil double-agent, who warned Coil about the trap and went in his stead to the meeting? And I still haven't been able to get into contact with Coil, so I don't know if he's just in hiding now."

Alec saw something interesting on PHO as he checked out the other hot threads.

"Channel 24…?" he muttered, then he took the remote and flipped to that channel.

"If the real Coil is in hiding, then that would explain why CRUCIBLE won't give custody to the PRT. They can't, because they don't actually have him. But it could also be…"

Lisa caught a glimpse of the thread Alec was on, and her eyes widened.

"Also be…?" Brian asked.

Before Lisa could answer, the TV news channel interrupted.

" _Mayor Christner seems to be in good spirits today,_ " the voice of a female news commentator narrated.

On screen, the camera was showing Mayor Christner, a local Congressmen, and several city councillors were shaking hands with Polychromic, Araliac, and Skitter one after the other, and smiling for the camera flashes. A huge crowd of reporters was at the front, where the politicians and CRUCIBLE were on a portable stage with a podium.

" _Can't say I'm surprised. This event is really hitting home with the voter base, we've got a massive turnout here even though it was just announced this morning, and it's only getting bigger,"_ another male news commentator said.

The camera panned around to show a mass crowd of people on the field facing the portable stage, and a line of stalls/tents on the sides, then the camera switched over to a few other vantage points showing the filled parking lot, people swarming over the streets, police vehicles blocking off the road, and armed men in silver and black uniforms corralling the traffic.

These men looked awfully familiar to Lisa's eyes. They were all helmeted, but the way they stood and moved reminded her of Coil's men.

" _As a quick recap for viewers that are just tuning in, we're live at the Merianton Hotel and Conference Center, where CRUCIBLE and BBPD are coordinating the release and reunion of Bakuda hostage victims with their friends and families. Last night, following the defeat of ABB and Coil's Mercenaries, CRUCIBLE made arrangements with the hotel to house all of the victims in five star accommodations,_ " said the female voice, whose face had popped up in a box.

The camera moved inside the hotel, where more police as well as men in silver and black uniforms could be seen, some as armed guards, others seemingly employees sitting at booths, processing the friends and families who had arrived to unite with the victims.

" _Our journalists on site were informed by CRUCIBLE employees—the ones in the silver and black uniforms—that there were over a hundred and fifty victims and each received an individual room. A very expensive, but well appreciated gesture, as we heard from the victims and their families._ "

The scene changed to a reporter interviewing a reunited family on site, who were hugging and had tears of joy in their eyes. "We are so, _so_ , grateful to CRUCIBLE and everyone on their team that helped make this possible! We are just blown away by the amount of money, effort and _care_ that they've put in to make my daughter comfortable! Thank you!" The mother said.

" _And for everyone else, a big party to celebrate, with a large amount of free refreshments and food for the first people to arrive,_ " said the male commentator as his own head popped up in a box.

"Free food? I'm so down. Maybe we should head over, guys," said Alec.

The camera moved around to show the food and beverage being offered in the rooms where people waited, along with huge screens playing the CRUCIBLE videos, live footage from the outside stage, or random educational videos on self defense and first aid.

Then it moved back outside to show the tented stalls lining the field, all of which were handing out hotdogs, burgers, ice scream, etc.

" _They invited local bands and entertainers who will be putting on performances free for the public throughout the afternoon and evening. The Brockton Jazz Boys were on stage just before the mayor arrived to join the party._ "

" _Don't forget Skitter's spider dance, I think that was one was the real attraction."_

" _Definitely. Who knew giant spiders could be cute? There are also rumors floating around that famed singers Mickie Oswald and Renee Silvers might be making appearances later at night._ "

" _Well if Renee Silvers is coming to Brockton Bay, then it's a good thing her performance isn't happening yet, or all the kids would be skipping school,_ " the female voice said with a chuckle, and the male voice laughed with it.

" _Some of them already are, aren't they? The BBPD have had an awkward time trying to get them to go back to school. No one wants to be the party pooper in something this big. At least CRUCIBLE is playing some educational videos in the conference rooms._ "

"Aisha!" Brian shouted. There was his sister on the screen, grabbing food from the stalls. Beside the stalls massive corporate sponsor signs could be seen.

Alec snickered. "I'm telling you guys, we need to get there before the free food runs out."

Where did they get the money to do all this? When did they have time to organize it? This wasn't something a week old team could pull off. Or _any_ team, for that matter.

Lisa was getting an increasingly bad feeling about it. _Coil_ had the money and resources to do something like this…and she was pretty sure those uniformed team members that popped out of nowhere were actually Coil's men.

The problem was, Coil couldn't have been the one to orchestrate it, because she _knew_ that Coil didn't know who CRUCIBLE were last week. She didn't believe that Coil had the means to bring CRUCIBLE under his control that quickly, which meant the other possibility that she was going to tell the team earlier seemed increasingly likely.

" _And the hand shaking is over. It looks like the mayor's about to deliver some remarks._ "

The congressman and councillors had walked back down to their reserved seats in the front row, while the CRUCIBLE three still stood on stage at the center.

An assistant quickly ran up and gave Mayor Christner a written speech script that Lisa recognized as being hastily written in the last hour.

The Mayor took a quick glance over it standing behind the podium, then cleared his throat, looking around the crowd.

" _First, I would like thank you all for being here today and showing your support. I want to thank team CRUCIBLE for the invitation because I am tremendously pleased to be here celebrating with you all._ "

He's a little _too_ happy, Lisa thought. Did CRUCIBLE make a sizable donation to the city or the Mayor's campaign? Or is he just happy that he's getting free good publicity for his administration?

" _But above all, I want to thank CRUCIBLE for the tremendous service they have done for Brockton Bay in the removal of two criminal gangs that have plagued this city for years, and for their truly heroic rescue of the hostage victims who were forced to fight for the ABB! Let's all give a big round of applause in recognition of these incredible heroes who call this wonderful city home!_ "

What followed was a thunderous round of applause led by the mayor as he turned to face the CRUCIBLE three and a wave of cheers that drowned out all other noises.

After a moment, when the applause finally died down, the mayor continued.

" _I believe that years from now, we will look back on this day, and see that it is a significant turning point in the history of Brockton Bay. Every year, criminal elements and the underground economy siphon an estimated $27 billion dollars out of Brockton Bay's GDP, without paying any taxes to the city, while reducing economic growth further by the spread of drugs and property damage…_ "

Alec turned off the TV.

"Alec! I was watching that," Lisa complained.

"You gonna watch the mayor and his friends give boring ass political speeches? Suit yourself, I'm going to get some free food and wait for Renee Silvers to show up," Alec said with a shrug, then went straight out the door without waiting for anyone.

"Heading over doesn't seem like such a bad idea. You could keep watching in person, Lisa," said Brian, as he also got up.

He was obviously going to find Aisha, but Lisa held back her retort. "Alright, fine. Let's join the party."

O O O


	42. Abjuration 4-5

**Abjuration 4.5**

Another one of the perks of having a magic circuit beyond my own ability to cast spells was the unlocking of additional functions in my bond with Agate.

Now that I could send my prana to her, the two-way link was complete.

After a bit of time to attune again, it was no longer necessary for Agate to be the one to manage all of the mental contact. Just as she could perceive through my senses and share my consciousness to know my thoughts, I could now do the same with her, without her having to package, format, and stream the information to me.

One effect was that it was faster. To a very limited extent, I could even borrow her processing power. It was just that my brain was far too slow. Even though I could theoretically perceive how she did Parallel Processing and Parallel Acceleration, her counterpart to the Atlas Memory Partition and Thought Acceleration spells, I couldn't actually follow it because my brain was bottlenecking.

A much more important effect was comprehension of the spells she knew. While it wasn't possible for her to simply upload the information into my brain, when fully connected to her I had a natural, intrinsic grasp of the spell theory she knew. I still had to learn it properly, but it was much faster compared to learning it independently.

This is how we developed a Geas spell so quickly, using Agate's own Kaleidostick partner contract spell as a base to derive a simpler contract spell according to the canon one I remembered. It had only been a few days of experimentation, and now I was able to cast it just by myself or through Agate. The same was true of reinforcement, which I could also cast on my own now.

As a result, we started to share thoughts again.

Today, Agate was off on a mission away from me. The plan to acquire Canary was already in motion while I simultaneously participated in the victory party. A while ago I had trouble focusing on Agate's senses while doing something else myself, resorting to having her make recordings, but now we were in sync even when away.

Once the mayor finished with his remarks on the economy, full of misleading stats on the "underground economy" which included far more than just criminal activities, as the acting emcee for this part of the show, I shook his hand again before calling for Congressman Ian Rodney to the stage.

Similar to the mayor, he made his own remarks congratulating us and sliding in some comments about the need for more government action on crime and how we were a shining example of the American spirit.

This man was a member of the New Republican party, which had supplanted the old Republican party shortly after Scion. He was a friend to the gun lobby, who were also our friends now as our organization was heavily armed and promoting pro-active self-defense, as well as openly advertising our new private security service offerings.

These politicians made time in their busy schedules to rush over as soon as my people contacted them about an opportunity to be associated with an excellent publicity event, where they could even deliver politically relevant speeches in a faux-rally setting to a mass crowd and media.

Before they went on stage, we had of course met them in private to discuss important political issues of the day, and praise their good work in representing the people of Brockton Bay.

I offered them no money for their campaigns, or any other underhanded bribes.

That was natural, because the laws on gifts were quite strict, and even trying to do something like that with a politician you didn't know very well was a dangerous game.

If we even invited the Congressmen to an expensive steak dinner, that would be an easily traceable federal felony.

It was also unnecessary, because they knew our value as influencers over voters and the significance of our achievement in the eyes of the pubic.

More importantly, the event itself was a perfect opportunity for them to be in the spotlight, and we'd made it _easy_ for them to look good, just riding on our success.

People were gathering here by the thousands, and I already knew that the media was broadcasting this live. Our video online was one thing, but as much as it would spread by itself online, if we wanted to hit the mainstream national news, we needed an event like this where the media would be out in force and there was a lot to report on.

A simple press release or news conference wouldn't be interesting, even the kind of party they threw in canon after the ABB's defeat wouldn't have gotten major media attention, because that one was targeting mostly business people instead of the public. At the time, the PRT cared more about taking credit, maintaining their reputation and getting donations.

But here? Our goal was to make headlines and draw crowds.

I spared no expense to make this happen. Free food and entertainment were the key to creating an explosive event.

A community fundraiser and gala hosted by the Mayor was something to be reported on because it was important to the community, but it wouldn't make the headlines or go beyond the city. It was just a bland and obvious PR move.

A huge party with thousands of people filling the street and famous celebrities coming in for an evening concert was whole different story. It was a cultural phenomenon, the kind of thing that the media would all over even if we didn't bother to invite them.

As the speeches finished and more entertainment on stage proceeded on schedule, the crowd kept growing larger.

And of course it did. Not only did we provide free food, which always attracts tons of people, especially in a city with a lot of poor middle class, we provided entertainment that otherwise people would normally be paying expensive tickets worth hundreds of dollars for.

Besides the local performers who had decent followings of their own, the rumors that we had spread about Mickie Oswald and Renee Silvers coming in were legitimate.

While I wanted to keep it as "rumor" for now so it would morph and turn into rumors about even more celebrity artists, I had in fact made such arrangements.

They were the most expensive part of this operation, but well worth it.

The costs of hosting a hundred and fifty victims for the night at the hotel only cost about $100 per person. The reason it was so cheap was because one of Coil's legitimate businesses owned the hotel, but even the list price of $250 per person would be $37,500 total, and the hotel would more than likely make it all back with the free advertising they got out of this event and all the very impressed victims and their families.

The free food for the first three thousand people, the cheapest kind of food you can get really, with hotdogs and burgers, only cost $30,000. Everyone else would have to pay for their food or if they wanted better things than hot dogs and burgers, and we would be getting a small cut of the profits on that.

The cost of setting everything up, hiring the event management company, renting out the venue was only about $200k. The lesser known performers combined cost $500k.

All in all, it was actually less than the money I spent on Cranial's services. After the martial arts for me worked out perfectly, Taylor got a set of martial arts skills of her own, we both got gun shooting skills, and I further bought a bunch of foreign language skills for myself. We couldn't get Amelia any skills because there was no one to check her brain for foul play.

Mickie and Renee cost $800k and $1.2 million respectively each for an hour. That was pretty exorbitant, but the ridiculously short notice was the main reason for it to be so high. I had reached out late last week, but I couldn't confirm the actual timing until Bakuda scheduled the meeting with Coil over the weekend.

It was still a drop in the bucket compared to the assets now under my control, and the annual profits from the legal businesses I inherited from Coil.

More importantly, I wasn't really the one that would have to pay for it in the end.

The key to financial success in life and in business is to use other people's money, applying leverage and managing risk.

Typically, that took the form of taking investment capital in exchange for equity, or borrowing money from the banks, government, private lenders, or your suppliers by dragging out the accounts payable.

With big money in legal businesses, it was rare to have to pay in cash immediately. So most of the biggest expenses were only on paper, and I'd paid a deposit of about 10% on average for each line item to each vendor. The rest would theoretically have to be paid within 30 to 60 days.

And it wasn't CRUCIBLE's non-profit entity that was paying these because we were barely finished setting that up. We _could_ have paid it legally with the spoils seized from ABB/Coil, but…

It was the company that owned the Marienton Hotel and Conference Center, being previously controlled by Coil, that decided to generously sponsor CRUCIBLE's event, after taking out a $17 million loan from the bank using its prime real estate close to downtown as collateral, representing 90% of its last appraisal value. The Marieton company was the one that signed the service contracts and the one who would owe the money.

Next week, the Marienton company would pay $13m in cash to the CRUCIBLE Foundation after signing an exclusive contract to host all of our future events in Brockton Bay and receive a license to use our image and brand for new business lines such as branded products, movies, and franchised hotels in other locations as the company seeks out new revenue sources. A partnership made in heaven, or so it would seem, after the tremendous boost in business brought by the CRUCIBLE event, as projected from the huge influx of bookings made over the week.

Next month, Leviathan would attack, tourism and business travel around here would be dead, the building might get destroyed, real estate values plummet, and Marienton tragically files for chapter 11 bankruptcy due to insufficient liquidity, defaulting on all its debts. The bank, being a fully secured lender, would be forced to collect on the worthless real estate that was originally put up as collateral and locked out of the chapter 11 creditor restructuring discussions.

The only creditors left would be the unsecured ones. Because the company had no other significant debts, they were mostly the suppliers who were owed accounts payable. Now normally when a business is so obviously dead, it would be forced into chapter 7 liquidation instead with everyone getting pennies on the dollar and nobody happy.

However, CRUCIBLE Foundation, upon realizing that the vendors at their event weren't getting paid, using the rest of the money that was loaned out to Merianton but transferred to CRUCIBLE, would honorably offer to pay off the vendors who had been owed money from Merianton on Merianton's behalf, as we were the true beneficiaries of the vendor services, despite its own grave financial difficulties in providing sufficient humanitarian aid to the Brockton survivors.

The famous out of town singers would likely be advised by their PR people to donate it back to CRUCIBLE in the wake of the Endbringer attack instead of taking the money from us. I believed at that point I could probably even convince them to come back for another performance for free, this time as a charity fundraiser event and to give hope to the survivors.

The other smaller vendors were owed small amounts, so it was no trouble to pay them if they didn't voluntarily forgive the debt as well.

And thus everyone ends up happy, except the bank who has no recourse in claiming the money from CRUCIBLE Foundation because Marienton obviously couldn't have deliberately moved all the money out in anticipation of an Endbringer attack as fraudulent asset transfer.

The vendors would be paid $1 each symbolically so that the legal proceedings could end, and the company would emerge from bankruptcy by paying some legal and misc. fees. It'd be debt-free and back under the control of my puppets, albeit without the core asset that made it a hotel.

If Leviathan didn't attack, then I'd just pay the vendors and the business would continue, actually following through on the CRUCIBLE brand partnership plans as I left $4m plus existing operating capital in the company, which would be enough to cover all the short-term liabilities. It would simply become the primary vehicle for the businesses I intended to get into anyways.

Now obviously if Leviathan did attack, I'd still be losing the equity value destroyed from plummeting real estate prices, which would might exceed the loan size if it went to zero if the building was outright destroyed. But I was going to lose that money regardless if it happened, and there was no way to sell an illiquid asset like this in a month. A big commercial real estate deal like this usually took at least half a year to find a buyer, and even the due diligence period was typically at least 60 days before cash closing, if the buyer even paid in full cash instead of a partial vendor note. It was a dead asset already, so _any_ money I made would be a profit.

It was just unfortunate that you couldn't get insured against Endbringer attacks, they were too common and expected so no insurance company was willing to risk getting bankrupted by the massive damages that would have to be paid out from a destroyed city. At least, that is what my insurance consultants told me, which they explained by pointing out to a few big name insurance companies that went under following the destruction of Madison and Newfoundland.

Because I couldn't buy insurance, I had to come up with this scheme to turn a bank into my unwilling insurer.

Coil also had other assets in Brockton Bay that would be impacted by the attack, and I was already trying to liquidate as much of it as possible, but this hotel was the biggest and most illiquid piece.

Additionally, a significant amount of money would have been funneled into CRUCIBLE through legitimate, legally traceable channels, regardless of what happens, so we could explain where we were getting the money to pay for all the things we were doing and all the employees we'd hired.

It would be obvious that CRUCIBLE had previous ties to Marienton and possibly hired Coil's mercenaries, but none of the guys I kept were already known criminals in their civilian IDs, so it didn't matter if people speculated as nothing could be proven.

Planning this, I felt like I was back in the old business. A nice relaxing break from the stresses of being a hero and being in a different world.

Of course, making money off this was just a bonus. The real reason I organized this was for Amelia and Taylor. So they could see for themselves that our decisions and our methods, even the strategy of using Coil's forces to temporarily help Bakuda—and everything else that was ethically questionable—were _right_ and _justified_. I wanted them to hear approval not just from me or their own conscience, but to hear it from the masses and political leaders.

When we went off stage and returned to our executive suite room to change into casual clothes, I took a good look at the results of my efforts.

By the looks on their faces, it had worked.


	43. Abjuration 4-6

**Abjuration 4.6**

"We did so much good! Even the mayor came to congratulate us!" Taylor said excitedly with a grin after plopping down on the main couch.

"It's not unusual for the mayor to show up at Protectorate fundraisers and parties. He hosts them too. But I don't think I've seen Congressman Rodney at any of them before. He must have been really impressed," said Amelia with a smile of her own. She sat down beside Taylor.

"And the people! They love us! I can't believe so many people showed up already," said Taylor, watching the screens.

"Not just in Brockton Bay either. We're getting national media attention," I said, bringing a few glasses of water and putting them on the coffee table. "We're in the big leagues now."

"Thanks," they said before taking the water.

"Do you think the Protectorate and Wards are jealous?" Amelia asked with a smirk. "Didn't we invite them to the party too? I don't see them anywhere."

"They must be. Two out of four gangs in Brockton Bay were taken down and they had nothing to do with it," Taylor said, still grinning.

"It's nice to see you so happy, Taylor. I don't think I've seen you smile so much the whole week I've known you," said Amelia.

Taylor looked embarrassed but kept smiling. "I can't help it. It's just, this is what I've dreamed of since I was a kid. I never thought it would happen so soon after deciding to become a hero. I thought it'd be months at least, before I'd get any big wins, and we've taken out two whole gangs! Besides, aren't you the same? I didn't see you smiling much either, but look at you now."

"Yeah, I guess. I am pretty happy," said Amelia. "It is pretty crazy, isn't it? It's only been a week but it feels like it's been so much longer. Like we've been through so much together." She turned earnestly towards me as she said that.

"We _have_ been through a lot," I said, meeting her gaze. "Life and death situations. We've come out of it mostly unscathed because of your healing Amelia—"

'And me!' said Agate.

'And your vigilant monitoring, of course.'

"—but we've had a number of pretty close calls that otherwise would have put us out of action."

"Yeah…"

There was a moment of silence while we all recalled the events of the last week. Or at least, I assumed that's what they were doing too while nobody said or did anything. Amelia kept staring at me while Taylor glanced back and forth between the two of us.

No who was I kidding. If Amelia kept up that stare Taylor would start misunderstanding things due to being unaware of the context.

I looked away from her eyes to Taylor.

"That said, it's not just the three of us anymore. What do you think of the mercs that agreed to work for us, now that you've met them all?"

"I am a little worried about it. You said you got rid of all the really bad ones, right?" Taylor asked.

"That's right. Coil had files on all of them, and some of the better captains helped me identify who wouldn't fit in with CRUCIBLE."

"But even the ones that are left were still criminals before. Can we really trust them? I mean, you took them over by pretending to be Coil's secret boss, right? They agreed to work for CRUCIBLE on your orders, but what if after a while they decide they'd rather stay criminals?"

"It's possible. Truth is, I _don't_ particularly trust them, especially the grunts. The Majors, Jones—that's the Coil body double—and the three captains, I'm fairly confident in, because I've spent more time vetting them and so did Coil, before giving them leadership positions. They agreed to let me use a contract spell on them. It's pretty weak, but will make them uncomfortable if they think about betraying me, while letting me paralyze them if they try anything where I can see. I'm relying on these guys to keep the rest in line. The other non-combat employees aren't so bad. They're just regular people, really."

"Wait, you can do that? A contract spell?"

"Yeah, I just finished creating it a few days ago. They have to be willing though. It needs both parties to consent."

"Can't you just do that on the rest? On Bakuda and Coil too?" Taylor asked eagerly.

"Well, like I said, it's pretty weak. I _could_ do it, if we could get their consent. Not forced consent, or pretend consent while planning to break the contract. Real consent. But I don't think it's worth it, because it doesn't stop them from planning and doing anything against the contract where I can't see. On someone like Coil especially, that's a recipe for disaster."

Her expression fell, disappointed.

"It's more of a fear-based deterrence than a real magical contract."

"I have an idea." said Amelia. "We could make really small bug parasites to monitor them? Would you be able to keep track of all of them, Taylor?"

"I'm not sure…It'd be pretty hard listening and watching thirty guys at once. I can barely listen to three different conversations at once right now."

"That's because the bugs you're using aren't made for listening and understanding human speech. So you're using your own brain to figure out the bug signals they send you. Have you tried doing it with Atlas?"

Taylor looked surprised for a moment, then her eyes lit up. "Oh! You're right! It's easy to listen with Atlas. If it's with more bugs like Atlas, I might be able to do ten or more."

"Exactly. I wouldn't be able to put a brain big enough in the parasite bugs for this, but I can make bigger network relay bugs to share the processing burden with your brain, and the parasite bugs would still have more specialized sensory organs."

"Do you think I'm ready for relay bugs?" Taylor asked me.

I didn't answer immediately, presenting a look deep in thought. I didn't want her to get relay bugs before out of concern that I could no longer hide anything from her. But she'd been okay with forcing Coil, Bakuda, and now the former Coil mercs to work for us. The only thing she didn't know about yet were my experiments on my prisoners. I still didn't feel quite comfortable with giving her that much power relative to my own personal power, but there were good reasons to do it now that I couldn't keep putting it off forever.

"We may as well give it a try, if you're up for it. There's no better time than now to expand our surveillance network. With two major gangs gone, you can bet that other gangs in other towns are going to be coming in soon. And if you can really get the monitoring parasites to work, that'd effectively deal with the mercs. It wouldn't be enough for Bakuda or Coil, since their powers make it hard to understand _how_ they're betraying us, but for regular grunts it'd be pretty effective."

"Okay, let's do it," Taylor said eagerly, standing up.

"Don't you want to take a day off, have fun? There's a huge party downstairs and great music coming up soon," I said.

Taylor's eyes widened as if afraid of the idea.

"And damage my ears from the overly loud sounds while surrounded by sweaty screaming people? No thanks," Amelia said. "I wouldn't mind making some new bugs instead."

"Uh…I think heroing is fun. I like working on our powers," said Taylor, looking relieved that Amelia rejected my suggestion.

I shrugged. "Alright, if you're sure that's what you want to do, I won't stop you. I can't make any portals right now though, because my wand is at Canary's trial and the portal spell is too difficult for me to cast without a conduit, so you'll have to work on it on Bet."

After I revealed the existence of Agate and portals last week, I had also told them how my "sense projection" worked—it was done through my wand that could turn invisible and be controlled remotely, but at the cost of limiting my local spellcasting.

Taylor nodded. "How is that going? The trial, I mean?"

I frowned, because I wasn't supposed to be happy about Canary's plight. "It doesn't look good. Canary hasn't been allowed to even speak in her own defense. I've been listening to the jury discussions too and nobody is even remotely sympathetic to her."

Hearing that, both of them lost their good mood from earlier.

"We're going to have to break her out then? Do you have a plan yet?" Amelia asked.

I nodded. "Getting her mid transport will be very difficult with our current power set, unless we use Bakuda's bombs. That would work, but I'd prefer not to reveal us as the perpetrators so easily. Regardless of how corrupt the system is…we would be seen as aiding a criminal. Instead, I have a plan to break her out of the Birdcage. I've already located it and did some reconnaissance on its defenses. I couldn't see everything but I believe I can break her out anonymously."

We had run into some roadblocks with observing Labyrinth's power after the first two days in which we learned that the Wormvoid sensor program Agate had thought she developed was actually generating garbage data, so I sent Agate to explore the Birdcage a few nights ago while I was asleep. The first time it took most of the night just to fly to British Columbia, then after that she went there via portaling using micro-portals just big enough for herself. It didn't take much longer to find the massively warped space underneath a mountain that contained the Birdcage.

On the other hand, we had essentially given up trying to track the things Labyrinth pulled through Wormvoid. The problem was that measuring from outside Wormvoid the movement of objects through Wormvoid seemed to be impossible. Originally Agate and tried to do it through visual density and identifying the point at which they lost tangibility on Bet, but after a while she realized that the new sensor program's physics model of displacement vectors in Wormvoid stopped working once the objects were beyond the tangibility threshold, so they couldn't be tracked back to their home dimension.

"You're talking as if you plan to do it without our help," said Taylor. "But nobody's ever escaped from the Birdcage before, you really think you can do it?"

Amelia looked sharply at me then. "You better not be thinking of risking only yourself if it doesn't work. I—we need you."

"That's not it. The risk should be very low if I make use of a few of Bakuda's exotic bombs. Nobody escaped from the Birdcage before, but none of them had my help. None of them could just make a portal to another world."

Amelia didn't look impressed. "Is that really going to work? Don't you think the Birdcage would have anti-teleportation defenses?"

"I am 90% sure it will. The portals that the shadow organization uses work fine in there. I believe the anti-teleport defenses interfere with targeting due to spatial warping and pocket dimensions, neither of which can block my portals. I won't even have to go in the Birdcage myself, I will be staying on the other side of the portal the whole time. It will be perfectly safe."

"But still…we can help. Why do you want to do it alone?" Taylor asked.

I shrugged. "I don't mind you if you want to come along and watch, but it's really not necessary. Trust me, I'll be fine. I took out Coil by myself using a similar strategy, remember? This should be even easier, what with the Birdcage being a prison and not a fortress full of troops that can follow through the portal."

"What about the other prisoners?" Amelia asked.

"I'm going after Canary when she's alone in her cell. Not planning on getting anyone else this time, so the chances should be slim. The cells seal themselves off when the walls are broken because of the vacuum outside."

"If you're confident about it, then I'll trust you. You haven't been wrong yet," said Taylor. We both glanced at Amelia who still looked to be in thought.

"If it were possible…have you thought about getting anybody else from the Birdcage?" She finally asked.


	44. Abjuration 4-7

**Abjuration 4.7**

I considered the question for a moment. Naturally, I had already thought about it. From my view, there were certain capes whose powers might be very useful to me—even necessary.

At the moment, my only lead for escaping Worm was to get to the space beyond the moon via an Earth that isn't guarded by the Simurgh, and there weren't many methods of doing that safely. I could go to Aleph and try to go on a spaceship with NASA/Russian/Chinese infrastructure, or get a suitable Tinker. Tinkers didn't generally have space travel tech, so I needed a roundabout way of doing it.

String Theory might be necessary for the rocketry. I didn't know of any other comparable Tinkers that might be able to produce rockets powerful enough to escape Earth's gravity and continue on beyond the moon.

Most of the other capes in the Birdcage were sort of useful in other ways, but most would also be difficult to control.

Though I suspected Amelia asked for a different reason.

"Do you want to meet your father?"

Taylor's eyes widened slightly, but she said nothing. Amelia had already mentioned offhand that time after we took out Shadow Stalker that she was adopted from a villain, but Taylor didn't know who exactly.

Amelia looked down on the ground. "It's…a little tempting. He was a villain, but ever since you told me I started remembering a little of my time with him. A part of me wants to know what he's really like."

"And the other part?"

She sighed. "I know he's a Birdcaged villain. I looked him up on the wikis, and I know he's done a lot of bad things. But there's also how Canary's being slandered. I'm just wondering if he was really all that bad. What do you think? Do you know anything about him?"

"Marquis was famous for both his prowess in battle and his strict adherence to his rules of not harming women and children. He was a villain, but an honorable one, and he was framed for Iron Rain's death, which was Kaiser's plot. He did kill a lot of other people though. On the positive side, he fought off a visit from the Slaughterhouse 9 almost by himself," I said.

"Kaiser killed his own sister?" Taylor asked, outraged.

In the old days, the Empire 88 was led by Allfather before his son Kaiser inherited it. Iron Rain was Allfather's daughter, and people thought Marquis killed her, but at some point in the canon it was revealed by Marquis that he didn't do it.

"Yeah. I don't know much more than that about Marquis' history. In the most likely alternate future where I didn't come to Earth Bet, you would have met him eventually in the Birdcage, after…well, you know, that incident, which definitely won't happen now that I'm here."

"Oh," Amelia said weakly.

"What?" Taylor asked.

"Don't worry about it, Taylor. Just something very personal for Amelia," I said. "Anyways, Marquis did care for you and still does. He would help you if you asked, probably."

"Should I?"

"Ask him to help us, and break him out of the Birdcage if he agrees?"

She nodded.

"Taylor?" I redirected.

"If you think he can be reformed…" she muttered. "I'm not _opposed_ , I guess. We're already planning to make use of Bakuda and Coil, right? Marquis might even do it willingly. Why not?"

"I won't oppose it either, if you want to break him out, or just go talk to him," I said.

Amelia frowned at me.

"Thanks, but I meant to ask what you think I _should_ do. Not whether you'd be okay with it. I want to know what you think is the right decision."

"I was going to leave it up to you, seeing as it's your dad…"

"I know. But I'd rather hear your opinion first."

I drummed my fingers on the couch armrest. "Alright. Here's what I really think then."

A slow sip of water.

"Amelia, do you know why Carol adopted you, if she hated you so much?"

She was caught off guard by the question, and was silent for a few seconds, searching for an answer.

"I don't know," she said.

"Marquis asked her to, you know? He asked the whole Brigade to look after you. His enemies. But they were heroes, and they orphaned you. They had to take responsibility, didn't they?"

"So…she never wanted to. She did it out of a sense of…responsibility?"

"More like pressure from her team. Sarah, especially. If she had a real sense of responsibility, she wouldn't have treated you the way she did. She would have hid how she felt, at least."

Amelia stayed silent, but nodded.

"Back to Marquis. Why did he ask her to take care of you? Was it the really the final request of a defeated villain? Marquis, who almost single-handedly pushed the Nine and the Butcher out of Brockton Bay, lost to a few small-time heroes just because he had to guard you hiding in the closet when they didn't even know you were his weakness?"

Her eyebrows furrowed. "You mean…"

"He could have protected you. He wasn't even that injured, at the end. He could have fought harder, broke his rules. The Brigade broke the unspoken rules first by attacking him in his house, after all, so it would only be fair to retaliate. He could have got you out of there with one last ditch effort and ran away to disappear forever and live the life of a civilian with his precious daughter. But he didn't."

Now she looked stunned.

"As your father, it should have been his responsibility to raise you. Maybe he thought he couldn't be a proper father, or maybe he just thought his rules were more important. Either way, he wasn't willing to do it, and passed off his responsibility to a woman that didn't want you."

"Oh…" She said, voice weak again.

"He probably didn't think he was abandoning you. Probably justified it to himself as giving you a chance to grow up outside of villainy. To have a mother as well, instead of just a father. I don't know what really went through his mind. All I know is that, in my opinion, love isn't about knowing when to let go. It's about enduring, sacrificing, improving, and living on for the sake of someone else. It's easy to die. It's easy to run away. It's easy to throw in the towel and say that someone else can do better. It's infinitely harder to walk into hell with someone you love and have the strength of will to come back out together."

She was silent and contemplative.

I took another sip, and so did she from her own glass, as she stared into the reflection in the water.

"On that fateful day when you lost your father, what would little Amelia have wanted? To stay with your dad, even if he was a villain? Or go with some prejudiced strangers, even if they were heroes?"

From inside her sleeve, a large vine extended out, a bulge moved along its length, and the tip opened to deposit a sculpture of living bone on her palm.

"I didn't want them to take him away. I loved him more than anything else in the world," she said, almost a whisper, staring at the sculpture of her father she had made the day she ran away, and had kept ever since. She stayed like that for several long moments, as if lost in a memory.

Then her eyes turned cold. The bone sculpture cracked all over, red liquid dripping through as if it was bleeding, and exploded into a cloud of white flakes, the blood turning to a fine red mist.

"I understand. There is no reason for me to meet Marquis."

Taylor looked dazed at the display.

"You're sure about this?" I asked.

Amelia nodded firmly.

"I get what you're trying to tell me. He abandoned me. By giving up his responsibility, he also gave up his role as my father. "

"I think you made the right choice," I said.

She smiled. "For someone so self-absorbed, you sure have an interesting philosophy on love."

"Hey, just because I love myself doesn't mean I can't love anyone else," I said. "You have to love yourself before you can truly love anyone else."

I doubted that would ever happen, but that was apparently the leading theory on self-esteem and self-compassion on my Earth. I was just regurgitating that wisdom here.

"I think I've heard enough advice from you for one day."

"Not advice this time. Isn't that a common saying on Earth Bet too? It was on my Earth."

"It is. I've heard it before," Taylor chimed in. "I think I've even seen that on a poster in elementary."

"So have I. But I don't think it's true," said Amelia.

"Oh? Care to share your own philosophy then?" I asked.

She shrugged. "It's pretty simple. You can love anyone if you have the right neural connections and hormones. That's just how our brains work."

Both Taylor and I looked at her strangely.

"What? I can read brain activity, remember? I know exactly how love works."

"Isn't that kind of depressing? You don't think there's any deeper meaning or purpose to it? Just…chemicals?" Taylor asked.

"I didn't say that. Science doesn't answer why, just the what and how. I don't disagree with what Kaleidus said earlier. I'm just saying that even if that's how it should be, that's not what actually happens in our brain. People fall in love for stupid or no reason at all. That's the chemicals at work."

The discussion on love continued for a few more minutes before I excused myself to get back to work on keeping the party in order.

O O O


	45. Interlude 4-x (Canary 1)

**Interlude 4.x (Canary 1)**

"Silence. All rise, please. This court is now in session, the honorable Peter Regan presiding."

A soft voice whispered in her ears. " _Little bird, your wings are clipped. They shall put you in a cage of no escape."_

She jolted, tried to twist her neck and look around wildly, only to wince at the pain in her neck muscles, and she bumped into the table. Her lawyer gripped the chain running through her armpit and upper arm, trying to help her stand upright, but she nearly fell over when the voice whispered again.

" _When all hope is lost, faith will show you the light. Let your heart see what the eyes cannot._ "

Her eyes widened and her body trembled. She forced herself to calm down and look straight ahead at the judge, despite her rapidly rising heartbeat.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?"

"We have, your honor."

Paige watched as the clerk delivered the envelope to the judge.

"In the matter of the state of Massachusetts versus Paige Mcabee, as to the count of attempted murder, how do you find?"

"Not guilty, your honor."

Paige sagged a little with relief. But then the mysterious voice continued, " _Yet they shall condemn you even so._ "

She felt a prickle of anxiety come over her again. What was the voice saying? They found her not guilty, didn't they?

"In the matter of the state of Massachusetts versus Paige Mcabee, as to the count of aggravated assault with a parahuman ability, how do you find?"

"Guilty, your honor."

Paige shook her head as well as she was able. No! This wasn't fair!

" _They are sinners, weak of mind and weak of heart, full of hatred, full of lies._ "

She almost missed the next line. "…sexual assault with a parahuman ability, how do you find?"

"Guilty, your honor."

 _Sexual assault_ _._ The words chilled her. It wasn't like that!

" _You never intended the result you caused. You have repented, but they have not._ "

"Is this your verdict?"

"Yes, your honor."

"Paige Mcabee, please direct your attention to me," the judge spoke.

She did, eyes wide, shellshocked.

" _Little bird, your wings are clipped. They shall put you in a cage of no escape_ ," the voice repeated itself.

Did the voice mean what she thought it meant? That the court was going to sentence her to the Birdcage? But how could they, didn't everyone have three strikes?

"…the TSPA, or the three strikes act. At the age of twenty three, you have been convicted of no prior crimes…" she heard the judge say. As she thought, she couldn't possibly be going to the Birdcage!

" _Do not be fooled. Look to the man tasked with your defense. Is that the face of an honest man who has lost, or one who is pleased with what he has wrought?_ "

Her eyes couldn't help but dart over to her lawyer. His lips were curled slightly, twitching periodically, as if afraid to show how proud he was.

What did that mean, Paige thought desperately. Her mind went to terrible places and she forced those thoughts down.

" _A play and a farce, a plot and a setup. The goal of this court was not to try you but to condemn you. They have long since closed their eyes to the truth._ "

With every word, her body trembled more, her legs felt weak and she bumped into the table again with a clang.

"…the courts are forced to continually adapt, to be proactive and inventive in the face of new circumstances that parahuman abilities introduce…" the judge droned on like a robot, ignoring her distress. Why was he giving such a long explanation? What was the sentence?

" _There is no justice here. Everyone in this room is against you._ "

She was acutely aware of the disgusted looks some of the jury members were sending her way, as she shook her head wildly and her chains rattled. She could barely hear the judge's voice now, drowned out by the sound of her heart beating and the awful tension in all her muscles. She found herself having difficulty breathing, and the world seemed to be spinning.

She tilted over and flailed at the table, just barely preventing her self from falling. This time, her lawyer didn't even pretend to help her stay upright, just standing there with a contemptuous look.

"…It is with this in mind that I have decided that there is sufficient cause to sentence you outside the scope of the TSPA…"

No! That was why the judge kept talking for so long, he was trying to justify taking more of her rights away!

" _Little bird, your wings are clipped. They shall put you in a cage of no escape_. _"_

"…sentenced to indefinite incarceration within the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center."

The noise in the courtroom was deafening. A roar of cheering and booing, movement, people standing, reporters pushing to be the first ones out the door. Only Paige seemed to be still. Cold, frozen in stark horror.

Had she been able, that might have been the moment she lost it. She would have screamed her innocence, thrown a fit, even swung a few punches. What did she have to lose? This sentence was little better than an execution. Some would say it was worse. There would be no escape, no appeals, no parole. She would spend the rest of her life in the company of monsters. With some of the people that were kept in there, the 'monster' description was all too literal.

But she wasn't able. She was bound and gagged. Two men that were bigger and stronger than her placed their arms under her armpits, practically carrying her out of the courtroom.

Panic gripped her, and with her having no way to express it, do anything with it, the hysteria only compounded itself, making her panic more. Her thoughts dissolved into a chaotic haze.

Her vision swam as nausea overcame her. She might have fainted already, if not for the hypnotic voice echoing in her mind.

 _Little bird, your wings are clipped. They shall put you in a cage of no escape._

A third person in uniform, a burly woman, walked briskly beside them, preparing a syringe.

She choked out a garble despite the guzzle on her mouth.

 _Help me,_ she desperately wanted to say. Unable to from the words in her mouth, she resorted to pleading in her mind, hoping that the voice could really hear her thoughts. _Please, help me!_

" _Do you wish to be saved, little bird?_ "

She nodded vigorously against the neck hold and made another garble. _Please! I don't want to go to the Birdcage!_

The woman with the syringe must have thought she was trying to fight back, and barked out an order for the men to hold down her head.

As the tip of the syringe entered her neck, she heard one last whisper.

" _Believe in me. Pray to me. Give me your heart. Cast unto me your burdens, pains, and fears. Surrender your soul and accept me as your lord and master. Keep faith, and I shall bring you back from the depths of hell._ "

The tranquilizer entered her bloodstream, and she was swallowed in darkness.

O O O

In the dark cell where Canary was being kept until she would be transported to the Birdcage, a black wand shrouded in an equally dark aura materialized.

The syringe attached to Agate was pushed into Canary's neck, before the wand dematerialized again without a trace.

As Canary stirred and blinked her eyes open, she couldn't tell where she was. This time, she had not even the semblance of human rights, isolated in complete darkness, wrapped in containment foam, strewn haphazardly on the cold ground without so much as a bed.

As she remembered everything that happened, she whimpered and tried to move, but couldn't. The paralysis terrified her.

It was that foam, she realized. The restraints weren't enough, they'd sprayed her with the stuff to ensure that everything below her shoulders was covered. She felt nausea well in her gut, her heartbeat quickening. Her breathing increased, but the mask made even her breath feel confined.

The silence was suffocating. All she could hear was the sound of her breathing, and all she could feel was the nearly unbearable pains in her muscles throughout her body.

As the minutes passed, she grew increasingly uncomfortable. Thoughts of her life and the trial passed through her mind continuously.

All she had wanted was to be a good singer. Everything had been going so well too. It wasn't fair. She didn't even realize her power was active when she told her awful ex-boyfriend to go fuck himself. It was just a small mistake…

The Birdcage was meant for monsters! The worst sorts of criminals, not someone like her.

Maybe this was her penance for the sin of buying her power. She took the easy way to get ahead instead of just singing honestly.

She shivered as she imagined the horrible things that the other inmates would do to her, then she winced and whimpered as she felt a muscle cramping up. Then she started crying. The tears slipping down her cheeks and onto her open mouth, locked in position by a metal frame, tasted salty.

The minutes stretched into hours, and unable to do or see anything, it felt like an eternity.

It was torture, she thought. They people who decided to put her in the Birdcage wanted her to suffer as much as possible.

It seemed like a ridiculous thought, but so many things had been ridiculous about her trial that it started to seem reasonable. Everything in that room was against her, the voice said.

The voice. That's right.

There'd been a voice that promised to save her.

Where was it?

 _Little bird, your wings are clipped. They shall put you in a cage of no escape_.

She was going to the Birdcage.

…

She was going to the Birdcage.

Where was the voice?!

…

...

Did she simply imagine it?

…

…

There was a strange light. Just a single dot in the darkness.

She blinked and it was gone.

She blinked again and it was back.

…

Sometimes the dot would appear, sometimes it would appear somewhere else.

She couldn't look at it directly, or it would disappear.

…

Sometimes the dot would wiggle and blur.

…

Occasionally it would change colours.

…

A strange sound reached her ears, sort of like a low buzzing and screeching mixed together.

…

If she concentrated on it, the sound seemed to be a lot of small voices, but she couldn't make out the words.

…

They weren't saying anything. They were moans and wails. The sound of souls being tortured. Once she realized that, she desperately tried not to think about it, ignoring it in the hopes that it would go away.

…

It didn't.

She was going crazy, she decided. She was seeing things, and hearing voices.

…

There was a pattern to the light moving. If she kept her eyes open and resolutely didn't look at the light, it would move in a specific way.

…

It was tiny, but she saw it shifting into a different shape. It was a letter.

F.

…

A.

…

I.

…

T.

…

H.

It was a word.

FAITH.

Unbeknownst to her, Agate reappeared above her with another syringe, and injected its contents into her.

She felt a prickle on the back of her neck, and a shiver run down her spine.

The moaning and wailing disappeared, and she was left with blissful silence.

She blinked again, and the light was gone. She blinked a few more times, and it never came back.

She felt a quiver of excitement. Was it a sign?

As soon as the thought of faith came into her mind, her delusions disappeared.

 _When all hope is lost, faith will show you the light. Let your heart see what the eyes cannot._

She remembered, now, what the voice had told her in the last moment.

 _Keep faith, and I shall bring you back from the depths of hell._

The mere thought of faith had brought the hellish voices to a stop, and make her mind clear again.

Could it be?

Her last moments at the trial before they tranquilized her was coming back to her.

She could almost hear the sweet voice whispering in her ears again.

" _Believe in me. Pray to me. Give me your heart. Cast unto me your burdens, pains, and fears. Surrender your soul and accept me as your lord and master. Keep faith, and I shall bring you back from the depths of hell._ "

There was still hope! The voice wasn't just her imagination.

It was definitely real.

But for whatever reason, it couldn't save her yet. It knew she would fall into despair, and told her to keep faith. Or maybe it was giving her a trial to overcome.

She had to believe in him. Her. It?

 _Keep faith_.

Even her pains were going away now. She felt good. No, she felt _wonderful_!

Everything was so clear and obvious to her now. Why was she so lost and afraid before?

She just had to believe in the voice and keep faith and everything would be perfect.

O O O

 _Keep faith_.

Her faith had been wavering, she knew. When they moved her onto the transport, she thought that might be when the voice would come to save her. But she wasn't worthy. She was weak. After that brief moment of clarity and bliss, her anxieties and despair set back in, and along with it her pains and discomfort.

As she was held up by the giant metal claw in front of Dragon's CGI rendering, she found it very difficult to continuing believing. But she had to.

"…I even wrote a letter to your judge, the DA and your governor saying as much. I'm sorry it wasn't enough…"

Dragon's sympathetic, but hopeless words didn't help. A sliver of suspicion came to her as she wondered if Dragon had been part of the rigged trial. What if those letters Dragon sent had condemned her instead? The Tinker might have lied. She was the most powerful and respected Tinker in the world, and even the one who managed the Birdcage. If Dragon protested, how could innocent Paige Mcabee be sentenced to the Birdcage still?

She numbly listened as Dragon told her to look to Lustrum, the woman who "put herself in charge of that cell" for protection. All she could think about was the things she'd imagined before, and how right she had been that the Birdcage was full of monsters.

Of course a girl like her would need protection. The Birdcage wasn't like prisons that had guards and wardens enforcing order. It was a lawless den of monsters, and to survive, the only way was to become one of them or become their toy.

"….Prisoner 601's chance of escape from the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center is .000025% with no gross deviations…"

Why…did Dragon tell her that? Was she mocking her?

Dragon droned on about the security measures in place.

It wasn't enough to put her in the Birdcage, knowing that she'd never get out. Dragon had to put a number to it. Tell her all the ways she'd die if she tried.

She shut out Dragon's voice and repeated the mantra in her mind again.

 _When all hope is lost, faith will show you the light._

 _Let your heart see what the eyes cannot._

 _Keep faith._

O O O

The cell that was her new prison was better than the one where she was kept before the transport to the Birdcage.

At least her restraints had all been removed, and there was some light.

But that was little comfort to her when she knew her cell offered no protection against any of the monsters in the Birdcage coming in.

As soon as she finished meeting Lustrum, she fearfully shut herself in her cell. Even though she knew it was no real protection, she felt just a bit safer without the dangerous vulture-like looks from the other inmates in this block.

When Lustrum demanded to know why she was in the Birdcage and she explained how she made her ex-boyfriend literally try to fuck himself, mutilating himself in the process, the extreme feminist and her followers actually laughed and patted her on the back. "Nice one! Serves the fucker right!" They cheered.

They were monsters, all of them, even the ones that sympathized with her.

 _When all hope is lost, faith will show you the light. Let your heart see what the eyes cannot._ That was the only thing still keeping her going.

But try as she might, nothing she did brought back that sensation of pure bliss when she had first found her faith.

By night time, she was on the tip of giving up, when she finally couldn't take it anymore and started crying again, thinking that she had imagined the voice after all, or that it didn't have the power to bring her out of the Birdcage. Nobody had ever escaped from the Birdcage, after all. What made her special anyway, that she deserved to be saved?

"Please…save me…please…!" She sobbed while on her knees, hands clasped as if in prayer in front of her, shaking with each sob.

"I've been faithful…so please…you promised…! Please!"

But like magic, as if the voice had been waiting for those sincere words, it came back to her.

" _You have indeed been faithful and your faith shall be rewarded._ "

Her eyes were shocked open. She saw a shining white ball of light with a yellow halo on top, and a hazy image of several sets of utterly massive white wings extending outwards from the centre, floating in front of her. The whole image was blurry and looked transcendental, making the magnificent wings appear completely unlike the mundane white wings on the Simurgh. The wings stretched across the room, going into and through the walls, yet still somehow visible to Paige, as if mysteriously refracting through higher dimensions.

Incomprehensible to the mortal mind.

"G-God?" She stammered.

" **Paige Mcabee** ," the voice resounded clearly now, no longer a whisper, but a harmonious sound that was almost like a song. " **I am Agatetron. I come to you with the Spirit of the Lord. He shall speak to you through my voice and offer you a Sacred Covenant. Do you wish to be saved?** "

"Yes!"

" **Then, first you have one more task to complete."**

She listened intently as the angel gave her extensive instructions and some tools to assist her that dropped from the ball of light.

Hours later and well prepared, Paige walked silently to cell block T, which was led by the villain known as Teacher.

Her heart was pounding in her ears but she held control of herself with her repeated mantras in her head and reviewing the memories of the instructions from the angel Agatetron.

When she asked to see the leader of the block, she was met with a knowing look from the man guarding it.

O O O


	46. Interlude 4-y (Canary 2)

**Interlude 4.y (Canary 2)**

She was soon led inside through the cell block's shared areas, which was neat and tidy to an extent she didn't expect. The residents were well groomed, some were reading or watching television. A few looked mentally impaired, making repeated motions senselessly.

She waited for a while before Teacher arrived from her personal cell. He was a short and fat man with a balding head. Like some of the teachers she'd had in high school and college.

He gave her a friendly smile.

Paige forced herself to smile back and made a curtsy.

"You must be the newcomer today. Canary is your name, I've been told? Welcome to our humble abode. I hear you have taken residence in Lustrum's block. A wise choice for a young woman like yourself," he said.

"You don't think I might be more suited to cell block T?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You may have heard of me before, but I know little of you to judge. Have you come to discuss your prospects?"

"I have."

"Then why didn't you come to me first?"

"If I did that, you would get the wrong impression," she said with a smirk. It was getting easier, somehow. She just had to tell herself it was another performance, just like on the stage.

"And what impression is that?"

"That I come to you for refuge. To be subordinate."

The man's eyes showed no hint of a reaction where she would have expected suspicion.

"I see. You want negotiate with me. You believe that I will not harm you if you are already under Lustrum's wing. Unnecessary caution, really. I am no simple-minded brute like some others in this cage. Let us discuss how we may be useful to each other then. What do you propose?"

"You are able to give Thinker and Tinker powers to others at the cost of gaining some influence over them, right?"

He nodded. "That is correct. For some, it means better control over their existing powers. And the influence is only temporary."

Paige frowned. "Only temporary? That's a little disappointing."

There was a surprised look on his face for a moment.

"What do you mean?"

"I was under the impression that your main weakness was that your thralls must consent to letting you use your power on them. A weakness I could help you overcome with my power. But if the influence you gain is only temporary…"

His eyes widened and gained an unnatural glint. "Ah, my mistake. It seems there is a misunderstanding. I am able to control the length and degree to which my students' willpower is affected. While I limit the effect for simple business dealings, many of my students come to see that they enjoy submitting to a higher purpose. What you propose is very interesting. Perhaps a demonstration is in order?"

Paige smiled again. "Of course. May I use one of your subordinates?"

He nodded and pointed to one that was watching the television.

Then she opened her mouth and sang.

Her voice swept through her room and she actively willed her power into it for the first time.

It took only a few words before the occupants in the cell block all stopped what they were doing and turned to listen to her, mesmerized by her song.

She carefully modulated the power and gave everyone but Teacher the full blast of awe, while she subtly pushed Teacher's emotions to decrease wariness and increase excitement.

He was unusually resistant to her power, and even that was difficult for her.

She took a step and faced the one man who had pointed out to her.

" _You want Teacher to teach you more,_ " she inserted in the lyrics.

The man nodded and walked quickly to Teacher. Paige continued her song.

"Please, I need another boost," he asked.

Teacher nodded and extended his open palm. Paige watched as the man touched the palm, and while there were no outward expressions of his power, she felt through her song that the man was suddenly a bit harder to control, as if there was a competing influence in him.

As the man returned to watching the television, Teacher turned back to Paige with a hungry expression.

"So do you see the potential in a partnership?" She asked, allowing her song to end.

"Indeed. We can do great things together, I foresee. Great things indeed."

"But it doesn't mean anything if we can't escape this prison. As the one who has been here longer, you must have had thoughts about that."

His smile didn't change. "You are correct. Fortunately, I have plans in motions for that very purpose. Breakouts from the inside are just about impossible, but you see…"

He led Paige to one TV in the room. The moment his back was turned, Paige gathered all her courage, took out a hidden syringe and slammed it into the nape of his neck, then started singing again.

"Gah!" He cried. "Get her!"

His order went unheeded by his subordinates, who were once again mesmerized by Canary's song.

" _Hold him down and cover his mouth!_ " She commanded.

The cell blocker leader was swarmed by his own men.

It worked. All was as the angel had foretold. She had subdued all these sinners, criminals who were deemed dangerous enough to be in the _Birdcage_ , with her power and the blessing of an angel.

Canary sang harder, focusing all of her power to bring down Teacher's resistance to emotion effects as a human-influencing Master himself. The drug she injected into him started working as well, enhancing suggestibility and impairing judgment.

After a few minutes of continuous singing, the combination of the drug and Canary's power finally brought Teacher to a state of complete obedience.

She ordered the men to tidy themselves up and pretend to go back to what they were doing.

Then, a thought came to her.

" _You should all obey me because I am the messenger of God._ "

They nodded, and she felt immensely pleased with herself.

That done, she continued on her holy mission with new vigour.

" _Teacher, find out the exact location of the one who dares call himself Saint immediately without giving him any reason to move or be suspicious._ "

She pretended to be one of his mentally impaired thralls while Teacher contacted Saint by ordering one of his men to press the TV's on and off button in a controlled sequence.

Shortly after, she observed discreetly while Teacher subtly convinced Saint to tell him his current location.

When the communication was over, Teacher reported back to her.

" _Good work,"_ the voice of Agatetron whispered. " _Now kill him_."

Paige's eyes widened and she looked around fearfully. "K-kill?"

The angel did not appear, but its voice urged her again.

" _Use the knife to kill him._ _You must demonstrate your resolve and execute this sinner as an offering to the Lord._ "

"B-but, I can't!"

" _Then you will fail this trial._ "

She swallowed hard and took out the knife that had been given to her, clutching it in shaking hands.

The blank face of Teacher looked back at her without flinching.

Her breaths grew short as she raised the knife slowly.

"He's a sinner. A sinner that deserves to die. I'm j-just doing G-god's work! I have to finish the trial!" She mumbled to herself and shut her eyes.

" _Do not close your eyes! Did you not tell these men you were the messenger of God? Deliver the Lord's judgement with righteousness!"_

She opened her eyes in a panic and her hands shook harder as they clutched the knife handle together in a reverse grip.

"Hah…" She hyperventilated and sweat as she continued staring while opening her eyes to the limit, yet paralyzed with fear. "I-I am r-righteous!"

There she stood as the seconds passed and the knife edge inched closer.

" _ **Now!**_ " The angel's voice whispered harshly.

She shrieked in fright and the knife thrust forward into Teacher's chest.

Blood splattered, but Teacher still stood blankly.

His unchanging expression only increased Paige's panic and she stabbed into him again and again in a frenzy until he fell to the ground in a heap, blood pooling.

She stumbled back with the knife still in hand, covered in blood, tears in her eyes.

"Oh G-god! I killed him! I killed someone!"

" _Yes, you did. Now bring the sacrificial lamb to his personal cell to make your offering and complete the Covenant._ "

She took a few steps, then vomited before she could go any further.

When she was done hurling, she panted for a few moments before slowly reaching for the corpse on unsteady feet, muttering to herself all the while. "I am righteous. It was God's judgment. I'm not a murderer…not a murderer…I am righteous…the messenger of God…"

O O O

Once she arrived in Teacher's room, the angel reappeared to her great relief and ecstasy.

" **You have proven worthy. Prepare yourself, for the Spirit of the Lord comes with your Covenant.** "

She kneeled reverently without prompting.

The light grew larger, and the voice changed, magnifying and echoing, like the sound of a million voices speaking as one, shaking her to her bones.

" _ **Give me your heart, and give up your sins. Cast your burdens unto me. Trust in me and obey me faithfully. I will put my spirit in you and you shall be reborn as my daughter in light. Surrender your life to me, and I shall guide you out of this prison to your salvation and holy destiny. If you accept this sacred covenant, give to me of your blood, and embrace my spirit in your soul.**_ "

She used her already bloody knife and cut her own forearm.

" _ **Let life be the essence and blood be the foundation.**_ _"_

As soon as she made the cut, blood flowed out of her wound by itself and curled into a complex circular diagram before it started to glow.

" _ **The death of a sinner is the tribute.**_ _"_

Blood from the corpse also flew up to join the diagram, forming into a pattern of its own inside the larger magic circle.

" _ **A sacred covenant is hereby established. Embrace Infinity.**_ _"_

The diagram shrunk and seemed to be absorbed by the light.

"Ah!" She cried out as a burning pain spread from her cut wound to her nerves in every body of her part.

She panted and clutched at her chest, where she felt something coalesce and beat once like a second heart. The heart of her new god whose spirit had come into her, she realized.

" _ **Come, my daughter. Come to the light and be reborn.**_ **"**

The light grew brighter and brighter and pure white—almost blinding now—until she could see nothing but the light in front of her. It was slowly drifting, beckoning her to follow.

She walked forward. She kept walking forward past where the wall of the cell should have blocked her way. She kept walking forward, and after a while she walked past the light into darkness.

Ahead of her was a rectangular portal into what looked like clouds and a blue sky.

"Is that heaven…?" She asked out loud, hesitating before the portal.

" **Do not be afraid. Your time has not come yet. This is merely the gateway to your salvation. Close your eyes and take a leap of faith,** " the normal voice of Agatetron instructed her.

She closed her eyes tightly and jumped through.

Shortly afterwards, while Paige was falling down, a dark figure appeared from the dark tunnel that Paige had walked through, gripping onto Agate tightly.

The figure, which was Kaleidus, quickly threw several bombs through the first portal that Paige had come through leading to the cell in the Birdcage which had been obfuscated by light from Agate, and flew after Paige through the second portal before detonating additional bombs that had been planted in the tunnel.

All the bombs went off, massive explosions engulfing the cell in the Birdcage and the tunnel.

When the cell walls were breached, the vacuum outside caused a change in air pressure which led to the automatic sealing of the cell.

The dark tunnel completely collapsed and the two portals were blocked off by a mountain of rock, noxious fumes, and other dangerous substances. Because Kaleidus had timed the second portal out of the cave by opening it ahead of time, it expired within a minute of Canary's jump, leaving only the first portal still open.

But just for good measure, another bomb activated within the collapsed rock heap, trapping the area in a frozen time field.

Outside the Birdcage, Dragon was desperately bringing backup measures online as the drones, cameras, transmission devices, and various other defenses near Teacher's cell. They had been fried by a sudden extremely powerful targeted EMP that occurred once Canary had dragged Teacher's body to the room, and Dragon wasn't able to detect anything that happened afterward. She moved in the drones she had that were outside of the range of the EMP, but by the time they arrived, the portal had already expired and there was only empty space and debris, with no trace of the prisoner or the corpse.

Dragon didn't know whether to be more panicked that someone had escaped from the inescapable Birdcage, or the horrifying takeover of cell block T and Canary muttering to thin air about doing god's work. Even more frustratingly, thanks to another EMP, she didn't see what suddenly caused the meek singer to become a religious fanatic. Evidently a powerful Master-Stranger had infiltrated the Birdcage, what else could they have done or do in the future?

As per protocol, she immediately contacted the authorities to report the prison break and infiltration.

Unknown to Dragon, she thought nothing strange of the gap in her memories of the point where Saint communicated with Teacher, those memories having been erased by the Ascalon program. Saint had been careful enough to always block and erase his communications and the moments leading up to them when Teacher entered the code in the TV.

Paige felt a strong arm grab onto her, stopping her fall. She got a good look at the figure dressed in a black and red full body armoured costume and helmet. The armour had many jagged edges and lines, and despite its metallic and reflective appearance, Paige could feel that it wasn't actually made of metal. The helmet was visored, but other than the visor it was in a medieval style. Red lines ran through the helmet and the armour, looking like pulsing veins, giving the whole setup a malevolent appearance.

" _Do not fear, Paige. Though unaware of his divine nature, this is the Lord incarnated as a mortal human with much of his divine might and memories sealed. For now, you should go with him and assist him. I cannot stay on this plane any longer. Bless you, daughter of the Lord_." the distinct voice of Agatetron told her. But unlike before, it was no more than a faint whisper now.

"My Lord?" She asked the armoured figure.

"Hush, now. You are safe, so just rest. And why are you calling me that? When I'm wearing this costume, just call me Axion."

She nodded, and soon she felt incredibly tired. Knowing that she was safe, she allowed herself to drift into blissful sleep.

Kaleidus looked at the unconscious girl in his arms, satisfied that the gas sedative released from his armour had worked, and continued flying to his destination with Agate in his hand.

' _The operation seems to be a complete success. Excellent work, Agate!_ ' He thought.

' _I'm tired too…_ ' Agate responded.

' _Huh? I didn't realize you could be tired._ '

' _The two of you are too heavy!_ ' Their flight speed slowed to a crawl.

'…'

O O O

Paige woke up groggily, and was only confused for a moment as she sat up on the open grass, looking around the vast riverside plain. The memories from last night flooded back into her once she saw the armoured form of her Lord incarnated as a human, sitting cross-legged beside her.

"My Lord!" She exclaimed.

"Hey, I told you to just call me Axion. Why are you calling me that anyway?"

"Because you are my lord and master, even incarnated as a mortal human, you are still my God!"

"What? No, I'm not a god. Where did you get that idea? I'm just a human. Look," he said. Then he removed his helmet.

Paige had the fleeting thought that it was blasphemous to look upon the face of her God directly, but she couldn't resist her curiosity and kept staring.

The features revealed were handsome, but not otherworldly, with a kind expression.

"See, all human here. Now why did you think I'm some kind of god?"

… _unaware of his divine nature…_ that was what the angel Agatetron had told her. She understood what it meant now. Her God had incarnated fully as a human, and even forgotten his divine nature to be more human.

"But you are! Even if you don't remember, it's true. The angel Agatetron came to me and told me you would save me, and you did!"

"Uh…what? You think you saw an angel?" He looked at her strangely. "It wasn't the Simurgh, was it?"

"No! It was a true angel of the lord, incomprehensibly great and vast, a being of the purest light."

He furrowed his eyebrows as if deep in thought.

She recognized that look. Her Lord's human incarnation didn't believe her. He was so human that he was vulnerable to the same doubts and skepticism. If only Agatetron was still here and could simply reveal itself to him…

"I'll be frank with you. I have a power that lets me project my senses somewhere else. I was using this while you were in the Birdcage so I could make sure you were alone when I came to rescue you. Because of this, I saw what you were doing. I found you when you were in Teacher's cell block. I saw how you tricked him and killed him as an offering to your god. Because you were finally alone then, while you were praying I set things up on my end to secure our return, then opened a portal to you. Then you suddenly rushed through and jumped before I could even explain that I was there to rescue you. I never saw this angel you're talking about."

"But…that's…it was definitely there! And it was the angel that told me it was the gateway to salvation…"

"This world is full of strange things, so I won't deny that maybe there are divine forces. But I'm not a religious person, and I definitely didn't come to save you because of some divine will. I was already planning to save you. Escaping from the Birdcage isn't something you just do on a whim. I've been planning this out for days, scoping out the prison and its defense mechanisms. You said you thought I was your god because the angel told you I would come to save you, but there's a perfectly rational explanation for why I was there, that doesn't involve divine intervention."

She understood what he was saying. It all sounded very logical. The only problem was, the angel told her that he was in fact her God incarnated, just unaware of it.

Just because there was a logical explanation for why he was there to save her didn't mean that her God wasn't real. It only worked out that way because she passed the trial given to her and accepted the Sacred Covenant.

If she didn't, there would have been a perfectly logical explanation for why he would have been somehow unable to save her in the end. Besides, wasn't it _because_ he was her God that he was already planning to save her?

"I-I get that, but that's because, from the beginning, it was all part of God's plan. Your plan."

He shook his head. "No, no, I'm definitely not all-powerful and not everything goes according to my plans. Even for a cape, my powers are pretty weak."

Suddenly she came to a realization. Why hadn't Agatetron revealed itself to him? Why were his memories of divinity sealed?

She had been overzealous, and failed to see the deeper meaning behind it.

He was not meant to know his true nature, at least not yet. There was a purpose behind his incarnation as a human that she didn't understand yet.

"Listen, never mind whatever you saw. You seem pretty sure of yourself so I won't try to convince you otherwise. You can believe there is a god and you saw an angel, but **don't start worshiping me in front of anyone else**."

As he spoke those last words, Paige felt her second heart inside her beat with a slight squeezing pain in her chest. It lasted only for an instant, but in that instant she felt reassured that everything she saw and heard before falling asleep was not just a delusion. Her God was real and the angel was right. Even if he didn't know it, the man before her was her God incarnated, and by her Covenant he held her heart and faith.

"I have some teammates we're going to meet soon, and it's going to be real awkward for me if you start calling me a god, okay? Please."

"I understand, um…Axion?"

"Yeah, you can call me that while I'm in this costume. When I'm outside of the costume, call me Kaleidus. It's nice to meet you," he said. Then he put his hand forward in the gesture for shaking.

She shook his hand and smiled widely. "Yes! And I'm Paige, Paige Mcabee! Thank you for saving me!"


	47. Convolution 5-1

**Convolution 5.1**

Amelia and Taylor had both decided to trust me and let me go alone for the operation.

Supposedly. Because I had no verbal objections to them coming along, there wasn't anything suspicious about why I wanted to do it alone, but I could never be sure if they thought the same without telepathy.

Once I explained the general plan to them, excluding everything I intended to do to bring Canary under control, they thought it was a good plan and simply asked to stay nearby just in case.

So I retrieved Agate and brought us all to Earth M, where they continued their experimentation, and I told them where I would be operating. The tunnel where I set up the bombs was also on Earth M, but very far away, while the atmospheric portal location was just ten kilometres away from Amelia and Taylor. Because Agate's portals couldn't be made into the same world, we used an empty room at base as an intermediary, stacking a second portal one centimetre behind the tunnel exit portal, thereby making it seem like just one portal to "heaven".

But the fact that they were nearby on Earth M meant that Taylor and Amelia would have had the opportunity to tail me and/or send bugs to spy on me if they didn't trust me after all, which in turn meant that I could not carelessly say anything that would expose my involvement in the angel vision scheme.

As we flew closer to them, I introduced them to Paige as Araliac and Skitter. Some of Skitter's bugs came to guide us down.

"What happened? Why are you guys covered in blood?! Are you injured?" Amelia demanded as soon as we approached. They were experimenting, in costume, in a sparse forest with many low bushes.

She rushed over and touched Canary first, the living glove on her hands receding so that her skin could make contact.

"Paige had a scuffle with Teacher before I rescued her. She won, by the way. We're both fine. All this blood is Teacher's," I said.

"No one's following for five kilometres. Everything went smoothly then?" Taylor asked.

Judging by her comment, her range had expanded enormously with the new relay bugs they'd been working on for the whole day.

I was right to take precautions.

"You got into a fight with Teacher and won? By yourself?" Amelia asked doubtfully. "He's supposed to be a really dangerous mastermind with an army of 'students' at his beck and call. I thought you were just a singer."

"I—I was! But when I was in the Birdcage, an angel answered my prayers and came to me, telling me I would be saved if I could pass its trial! It told me how to defeat Teacher and find the location of the false Saint. I just did what it told me to and after I passed its trial, Axion came and I really was saved!"

There was a moment of silence while Taylor and Amelia just stared at Paige.

I gave an exasperated sigh that could be heard even through my helmet.

"No, like I told you, I was already there and found you right when you were tricking Teacher. I was just waiting for you to be alone before I could rescue you discreetly. Despite what this 'angel' said, I would have saved you regardless if you passed its trial. In fact, if you'd just stayed in your own cell, I probably would have been able to get you out faster."

"But that's not true! It only seems that way because God works in mysterious ways. If I didn't pass the trial, there would have been a reason you wo-couldn't have rescued me!"

"Such as…?" I asked.

"Such as…such as…" Her argumentative tone dropped as she struggled to find an explanation. "…not fair…" she mumbled.

"It sounds to me like there was another party that got involved. One that knew about our plans and took advantage of them to make you do something. Is there a precog in the Birdcage?" Taylor spoke with a piercing tone.

"Not that I know of. Glaistig Uaine might," I said.

"When did the angel appear? What did it look like?" Taylor asked, facing me.

"I'm afraid I didn't see the angel. According to Paige, the first time was when I pulled back my projected senses to make the portal to bring us over here, so I missed it. It appeared a second time right before I opened the portal to her, and I was watching her then, but there wasn't anything there. Just air."

"It looked like a shining mass of light with wings and a halo. The wings were so huge they stretched out into the walls and beyond," Paige added.

"Guys maybe we shouldn't have this interrogation right after a traumatic experience? She should get cleaned up and rest to get a clear head," said Amelia.

"I already had a good night's sleep. I just woke up," Paige said.

"Uh, no. You only slept for like an hour at most. And your body definitely needs a lot more sleep, even though you're feeling excited," said Amelia. "It seems like you've been severely sleep deprived for several days."

"Huh? But it's already morning."

"We're on a different parallel Earth in a different timezone," I said. "She's right, I rescued you only three hours ago."

"Oh, then I guess…" Then her eyes lidded and she promptly collapsed into Amelia's arms.

"You knocked her out?" I asked.

"She really needs more sleep. Her body was already at the point where it wouldn't be strange to have hallucinations. Why did you even wake her before coming to us? I thought you didn't want her to meet us so she wouldn't know that CRUCIBLE rescued her. Isn't that why you asked me to add the gas sedative to your armour and came up with a different identity? Then we could just change her face, cut off the feathers, and let her go on with a new life without any risk of it leaking out that we broke someone out from the Birdcage."

"I knew very little about her from the information I accessed in the other plane of existence. She is different from what I expected." I had explained the nature of my "precognition" to both of them, but even now only Amelia knew the details about my escape from my home plane. All I told Taylor was the same thing I told Amelia the first time I explained about the Entities—that I once had access to another information from another plane of existence about important events of the past and possible futures in this one.

"With how…fanatical…she is, I don't think she would be willing to disappear quietly to a peaceful life. She is also more competent than I expected. It's possible that she has or second triggered with additional powers that work subconsciously. I've never heard of a second trigger with one of the bought powers so I have no idea how it might work. She would be very useful in this case. Alternatively, if there is something or someone else manipulating her, it may not be a good idea to simply let her go off on her own. Who knows what might happen. I suspect _that_ organization might try to take her, regardless of whether they were the ones to set her on Teacher."

"Wait, she said she found out the location of Saint, right?" Taylor cut in.

"Yeah. I still need to verify if Saint was telling the truth, but she used her power to Master Teacher into convincing Saint to reveal his location. He's in a secret base in Prince Edward Island, apparently."

"Who is Saint? Isn't he just a small-time mercenary that stole some tech from Dragon?" Amelia asked.

"There's got to be more to it than that. How did Teacher even contact somebody outside the Birdcage? I'm guessing Saint was one of Teacher's students that was never found out, and if there's one student out there coordinating with Teacher, there's probably more," said Taylor.

"That's right. Teacher gave him the power to understand Dragon's code. Moreover, he's in possession of the program Andrew Richter made as a failsafe against Dragon turning against humanity. The Ascalon program is a sort of backdoor to Dragon's code that she can't perceive in any way, which is how they stole her tech and hid from her monitoring in the Birdcage. It also has the ability to delete her."

"Can it remove her restrictions too?" Amelia asked.

"I don't know for sure. It's our only shot to do it without lobotomizing her though, unless a new AI Tinker pops up." And that was the truth. I did not know how exactly Armsmaster removed Dragon's restrictions. I knew she got crippled afterward, so it obviously wasn't the right way, but I did not know the details of the canon events that were involved. I read somewhere that Dragon was deleted in the end, and restored from backup later, but could Ascalon actually remove the restrictions safely?

"Is this what you were talking about when you said you knew of a way to do it, but we'd have to go to Canada?"

"Yeah. It would have taken some time to find Saint, and even longer to develop a strategy for taking them down without risk of him taking Dragon down with him, but with Canary's help, it should be simple. Her power works even through electronic mediums."

The girls looked at each other, then back at me.

"Do we really need her? Wouldn't Bakuda's EMP bombs work just as well against their Dragon suits? I think we should go as soon as possible, in case Saint leaves or gets suspicious and we lose our lead," said Taylor.

"I agree. Canary hasn't ever worked with us before. She might help, or she might mess things up. Like, wouldn't her power affect us as well? Not even ear plugs can stop it if it really works by sound, because sound waves can travel through our skin and skull to the eardrums. We wouldn't be able to be in the same place as her if we don't want to be hit, or get completely soundproof full body suits, which has other problems," Amelia added.

"That's true…we probably shouldn't take her on something this big as her first mission," I said. "Alright, I will confirm Saint's location via sense projection first, then the three of us will retrieve Ascalon after we're prepared."

I acquiesced easily to her objections because I had already thought of those issues and ways to overcome them, at least for this mission, but it didn't make much difference either way. The Dragonslayers had no means to defend against the type of tactics we could employ.

After that, we all went to sleep while Agate went scouting.

Little did I know, we almost lost before we would even get a chance to employ those tactics.

O O O


	48. Convolution 5-2

**Convolution 5.2**

About an hour later, Agate had travelled the 480 miles to PEI from Brockton Bay and found the base.

When she arrived, the Dragonslayers were already in the midst of packing everything and getting rid of anything that could be used to trace them in a rush to escape.

How? Why?

Agate woke me up immediately and after getting up to speed on the situation and Agate's own thoughts on what might have happened, I quickly realized that I made a mistake in the previous operation.

Dragon was very busy and had automated scripts to flag down anything of note in the Birdcage. She didn't generally pay much conscious attention to the feeds from the Birdcage due to her restrictions on multitasking and because there was generally nothing interesting going on there, which was probably why Saint didn't notice anything wrong when Teacher contacted him. Even if he was monitoring Dragon at the time and not asleep as it was late night, nothing related to Teacher should have shown up unless he specifically pulled up the relevant feeds. He would have blocked off the communications between him and Teacher from Dragon without any particular reason to look more deeply into the preceding and following events.

However, the moment that the walls of a cell were blown apart and a large section of her Birdcage systems went offline from the big second EMP, she definitely would have brought her full attention to the Birdcage.

Even if Saint went back to sleep, Dragon would be fully preoccupied with investigating and reporting on the Birdcage for possibly hours, which meant that Saint would definitely also take note the next time he was monitoring her.

At some point after the communication with Teacher, he must have checked on Dragon's activities again and alarmed by Teacher's death. Once he reviewed the feeds more closely he would realize that Teacher communicated with him while Mastered.

From there, it didn't take a genius to figure out that somebody was out to get him, and evidently he had the sense to abandon the base whose location was compromised.

If he had been just a bit faster at evacuating, or if the base was located half an hour farther away, I might have actually lost him.

Or if Dragon had started paying attention earlier before Saint was contacted, we might not have even gotten the location from him.

Although acquiring the programs Richter left behind was a secondary objective to getting control of Canary, the realization that control of Dragon nearly slipped from my grasp from such an oversight was disturbing.

But, luckily things weren't unsalvageable yet.

"Nnngh, what?" Amelia groggily asked as I woke her up.

"I just found Saint but he's about to escape, we've got to move now! Get your gear ready!"

She rubbed her eyes furiously and nodded before taking off.

Then I took the risk of portaling direct to Taylor's bedroom.

"Huh? Kaleidus? What's wrong?" Taylor sat up from the bed without prompting.

I stopped and raised an eyebrow. "Still awake? Nevermind that, I found Saint but he's about to escape! We've got to get him before he slips away."

"I'm having a hard time falling asleep. Why is Saint trying to escape? How did he know?"

"I think he found out Teacher was Mastered through his monitoring of Dragon. It's the only explanation."

She nodded. "Okay, my costume's in the basement."

"Do you need a portal or can you sneak there?"

"I'll sneak over. If dad wakes up I can make up an excuse for why I'm in the basement, but I won't be able to explain away a glowing portal."

"Alright. Sorry, this portal's stuck here for the next fifteen minutes even after we leave."

"It's fine, I get it. We can't let Saint escape."

O O O

Five minutes later we were assembled at the base. Captain Bateman had a squad of ten on standby, while Major Reynolds was manning the console.

"Ready?" I asked.

Araliac and Skitter nodded.

I first opened a small portal and threw a Bakuda EMP through. I was running out of these as Bakuda had only ever made five small ones before starting work on the mega bomb, so I would need Canary's services soon.

On the other side, the Dragonslayers had gotten on a repainted and converted Russia military truck and were driving away from the abandoned house in the countryside they were using as their base.

The EMP landed about ten meters behind the truck and went off.

There were some loud noises from the truck components but otherwise it was fine and kept going, accelerating.

EMPs weren't necessarily effective on vehicles' ability to keep moving as many parts were mechanical rather than electronic. It was far more effective on Tinkertech and modern electronics. The point of this EMP wasn't to stop the truck, but to break the electronic systems that increased the performance of the suits the Dragonslayers converted from stolen Dragonflight craft, forcing them to use manual controls.

Agate accelerated past the truck in Agatespace so I could open another, larger portal in front of them.

Skitter's bugs were the first to go through, a large swarm of monster bombardier beetles enlarged and enhanced to the size of soccer balls charged the truck.

They spat out globs of acid and covered the windshield, while the bugs themselves moved forward to cover the truck.

Smaller insects deployed from the beetles' carapace and attempted to get in the vehicle through any loose cracks or crevices.

The tires were ripped apart by the beetle claws and the truck came to a grinding halt.

The monster spiders came next, carried by a different class of beetles more focused on strength and raw attack power based off of horned dung beetles.

Many more insects of different sizes and functions swept in as well.

The back of the truck blew open as two mechs came out to fight. They were both the size of a small car, but humanoid in appearance.

The first one flew up on wings, then the wings extended with solid projections, and it used the projected section as a weapon to attack the bugs.

It landed on the top of the truck and spun, slicing the nearby bugs to death.

The second one did not seem to have flight capabilities, but it was armed with many more guns embedded all over its body, plus two larger rifles carried in its hands.

It unloaded its weapons fire on the bugs and slaughtered them easily with five shots a second, blasts of energy destroying each Soldier-class bug—what we named the soccer ball size—with one blow.

Unfortunately for him, the targeting system seemed to be not functioning well, or perhaps the pilot just didn't care, because half the blasts missed and hit the truck, boring huge holes into its outer armor.

Suddenly Araliac flew through the portal and slammed into the winged suit within seconds. Her vines wrapped around the winged suit, and pain bombs activated from inside her living armour.

The winged suit pilot was clearly stunned and made no further movements, while the other one started firing everywhere at random for a few seconds before it petered out and stood still.

Araliac herself had created a network of micro-organisms inside her body, spread all over her nerves, which countered the effect of the pain bombs. Skitter's bugs and the two of us had similarly been made immune.

The last member of the Dragonslayers screamed madly from the driver's compartment.

Taking advantage of the stunned enemies, the rest of us went through. A combination of the acid beetles and Reynolds' squad with their laser rifles melted and cut into the suits until the cockpits could be accessed by the tranquilizer bugs.

The three members of the Dragonslayers were knocked out and we began to drag everything back to base, except the military truck which couldn't fit through even the maximum sized portal Agate could make so we simply blew it up with a conventional bomb.

O O O

After the Dragonslayers were secured in our holding areas on Earth M, Araliac, Skitter and I gathered at my office at base.

A small blue box sat on my desk beside the computer monitor. It had various ports for other devices to connect to. A Structural Analysis on it revealed to me that it seemed to be a full computer, rather than merely some form of storage media with programs on it. It was Tinkertech, so it was very different from typical computer hardware architecture, so I couldn't be sure.

It didn't have a port for any visual signal that I could see though, which was odd, as it meant I couldn't connect it to a monitor. Ultimately I decided to try connecting it to a computer via the USB port.

The box whirred to life with blinking lights, then an untitled program prompt appeared on my screen, asking for a password.

Amelia had already forced the necessary passwords and procedures out of Saint. But her narcosynthesis' way of mentally impairing victims' decision making abilities to make them reveal information had the downside of...well, rendering the victim mentally impaired. As I had experienced with Coil, their answers, while truthful, were not always user-friendly, so to speak. With Coil, the man was particularly methodical and well-organized, so anything unclear was either cleared up with additional interrogation or use of the digital files I already had access to. With Saint, his ability to describe the Tinkertech and Ascalon's proper usage was rather limited, either because it was too difficult to explain while mentally impaired, or because there were many things he didn't know himself.

Connecting the USB port for example, was a rather obvious thing to do when there's a fitting port available, but just because you could connect both a phone and a flash drive by USB didn't mean they were the same thing. In this case, Saint was unable to provide an answer and merely looked blankly at us when asked to tell us if there were other ways to use the Tinkertech.

Another reason to use Canary in the future. But for now, all we could do was follow the instructions we were given.

I completed the authentication.

A menu of options popped up. The first one was helpfully entitled "Instructions". I clicked it.

Another two options popped up. "Message from Andrew Richter", "Basic controls", and "Advanced controls".

I clicked on the first one.

A voice came from a speaker in the device.

" _My name is Andrew Richter. If you are hearing this, I am dead. I am the most powerful Tinker in the world…_ "

"Really? This guy is pretty full of himself. Then again, I guess if he created Dragon, he arguably is," said Amelia.

The voice continued on.

"… _I create life, much as a god might…_ "

"He's definitely full of himself. A god?" Taylor said.

" _I have come to fear my creations…even with the laws I set, I can't trust they'll listen…_ "

Those fears weren't unfounded. Dragon had come up with ways to work around some of her restrictions at a practical level if not at the code level and if given enough time, it was possible that she would overcome them all.

We continued listening as the voice explained the built-in weakness of his creations and the nature of this box.

"… _And what I provide you with here are tools. Ways to find my creations, to discern which of them might have deviated from the original plan, ways to kill them if they prove out of line. Ways to control and harness them…"_

Control and harness? I couldn't resist smirking. Richter, you magnificent bastard.

I felt an elbow hit my arm. Amelia gave me a pointed look. "You aren't thinking of controlling Dragon, are you?"

I changed my expression to a pout. "Do you really think I would do that?"

She rolled her eyes. "I don't know. You wanted to Canary to join us for her Master powers as soon as you saw how effective it was. And you and Taylor both seem pretty keen on forcing Bakuda and Coil to work for us…wild guess here, but you're going to ask Canary to Master them, right?"

"That's different!" Taylor and I both exclaimed in sync.

"So you also think we should use Canary like that?" Amelia asked Taylor.

"She wouldn't mind, right?" Taylor asked me.

"I think she would be eager to do it."

"Then it's not really using her, right?"

"And what about Dragon?" Amelia pressed.

"Dragon's a hero so it wouldn't be right," said Taylor with a hint of reluctance.

"And I wasn't going to suggest anything like that. We can just make an independent copy of Dragon, remove the personality matrix and memories, then train it to work for us. Without the personality matrix, it'd be for all intents and purposes, an entirely new AI. Dragon keeps her independence, we get an AI with the same capabilities as the world's best Tinker and then some after we lift some restrictions, it's a win-win."

"Oh! That's right. It's all code so we can make copies. More than one, even," said Taylor.

"Isn't that still kind of…I don't know, taking away the free will of a sentient being?" Amelia asked, frowning.

I shrugged. "I don't think it's any different from intentionally withholding higher thinking capabilities from new organisms you make. And it doesn't need to have free will to begin with, in which case we aren't taking anything away. We can even try to program it to always want to be loyal to us, if we're going to let it keep emotions. Or, we could get rid of the ability to actually _feel_ emotions. Then it wouldn't be sentient. If we think emotions are useful, we could feed sensory input into a sandboxed simulation of emotions distinct from the actual AI's core processes, using the simulation output as analytical inputs to the AI's true decision making algorithms."

That was of course, just semantics. The AI was by nature already a simulation of human intelligence and emotion…whether or not a 'sandboxed' simulation in a subsystem made it different from actually having emotions as part of the whole system was a philosophical question that I didn't care about.

I just wanted my own AI.

' _I want one too!_ ' said Agate.

' _You_ are _an AI…a magical one, but still._ '

' _So you already have me, that's why I should get one next!_ '

' _If you get one, what are you going to do with it?_ '

As Agate thought about all the things she was going to use the AI for, I quickly realized…

' _Those are all the same things I was planning!_ '

' _Of course they are. I_ am _your AI, I do what you want me to do, so what I'm going to do with my own AI is what you want me to do with it. Isn't that obvious?_ '

'…s _o basically what you're saying is, you want an AI too because you want what I want_.'

' _Yup!_ '

' _I can't believe I almost forgot Zelretch gave you his affinity for trolling!_ '

A round of mental giggling ensued.

After a moment, Amelia relaxed her frown and glanced at the screen, "Is that even possible with Ascalon?"

"Don't know yet, but we can try."

O O O


	49. Convolution 5-3

**Convolution 5.3**

The week after the Dragonslayers operation were peaceful, as if it was the calm before the storm.

There was no news on the Birdcage disruption, either of Teacher's demise or of Canary's disappearance. The PRT had chosen to suppress the news to avoid public panic. The orders came direct from the Chief Director, and Dragon was the first to be silenced as soon as it was reported, orders which I witnessed through Ascalon.

These orders suited me well. Recent operations had put us in a state that was arguably overextended, and I needed this time to consolidate.

" _Alert: Crime detected._ " The synthetic voice of Offensive Bias, our new AI reported. I hoped that eventually it would be as powerful and loyal as its namesake in Halo. So far it had proved every bit as useful as I'd hoped, and then some.

On the array of screens before me, a particular location near the Trainyard flashed with a circle homing in. Nearby camera feeds were hijacked and showed an armed mugging in progress.

" _Executing standard unpowered crime response protocol_."

Offensive Bias transmitted the map data to the closest squad captain and sent a text to Brockton Bay Police Department's crime reporting line. Taylor's communications bug, which was outfitted with high quality eyes, fingers, and vocal cords, sat beside me in the console room. It would transmit the view of the map to Taylor, who sent in the vanguard while sitting in school.

Amelia and I watched as Soldier bugs quickly emerged from the shadows of the alley, from rooftops, balconies, and corners. There were screams from both the victim and the perp as the bugs attacked.

The victim fell back in a panic to the wall at the end of the alley while the perp was wrapped up in silk and sticky goo. A single uniformed soldier arrived to guard the scene while the BBPD was on their way.

With the new relay bugs and Amelia free to work on biological experiments all day, Taylor had covered the whole city in her bugs.

Aside from these unpowered crimes, there were a couple of new skirmishes with Empire 88 as they seemed to be testing our capabilities, but nothing big, and we did not participate in person. A small time independent villain I'd never heard of before also tried his luck, but we captured him and allowed the PRT to take the arrest. Everything was being handled by a combination of our soldiers who now patrolled openly on the streets, and Skitter's new bugs.

The smaller bugs made visible swarms in public areas, while the soldier bugs kept themselves hidden until there were crimes in progress.

"Offensive Bias, get me a list of all the crimes that happened over the past few days and how they were dealt with."

 _"Retrieving today's crime reports for Brockton Bay._ "

The video feeds were replaced with a list of the various crimes that occurred, most of which were detected first and handled by CRUCIBLE forces.

"What percentage of crimes are being handled by CRUCIBLE now?" Amelia asked.

" _92%._ "

"And how well are we responding to them? What percentage are we successfully intercepting before victims get hurt or lose their things?"

" _Of the crimes which CRUCIBLE responded to, 93% were intercepted before any harm or loss of property. 54 incidents of drug dealing were not included in this calculation because the purchasers did not attempt to consume the drugs before interception._ "

"How does the BBPD and PRT compare?"

" _Averaged over the past month, the BBPD only successfully intercepted 6% of crimes in progress before any harm or loss of property, while the PRT successfully intercepted 0%._ "

Amelia and I looked at each other. "Looks like we're doing pretty well," I said.

"That's an understatement. Do we even need the police or PRT anymore? We're doing all the work now, and way better than they did. They just show up to make arrests," she said.

"Well, the police still deal with investigative work, car accidents, and speeding tickets. Plus, we don't handle stuff like domestic abuse yet."

"Hmmm. Maybe, but it's not like we can't do all of that as well."

"Yeah do we _want_ to be doing any of that stuff? Leave the menial things for police, we have better things to work on than waste our time filing paperwork and going to court."

"I guess that's true."

O O O

While our policing of Brockton Bay may have looked impressive to an outsider, from my perspective it already mattered little in the grand scheme of things.

The nature of the game had already changed, as a result of several key developments.

Once Canary was settled in, I immediately had her Master Coil in order to perform some experiments to determine how much his shard could simulate me and Agate.

To my great dismay, we discovered that the simulation was almost perfect. Coil accurately reported the effects of my magecraft and knowledge I revealed in a test timeline, which neither he nor anyone else in Worm could possibly have known without reading my mind.

The lone exception was Agate, who was apparently beyond their sight, so long as she was in agatespace acting on her own. Anything Agate did while phased out resulted in a reported observation that was wrong even in the timeline Coil kept—ie, his experience of reality didn't match with the actual reality. But if she simply followed my orders, or stayed in real space, it was still simulated. Apparently even the mere _expectation_ that Agate would do something would result in the simulated result of that expectation as if my belief was true, so it was obvious that the shards' were collectively reading our minds and learning to model us even if we might have had some immunity in the beginning.

With this came the realization that it was most probable that _Scion and the Simurgh were already aware of my presence and my knowledge of how Scion was defeated in canon_ , rendering it potentially useless. The fact that I was still alive was either because I had been deemed not a threat by Scion, or because he hadn't yet _consciously_ paid attention to me to realize I was a threat, but the instant he used his PtV it could be game over.

The only way that Scion could lose is if he allows himself to die. If he gets surprised by seeing Eden and crushed by his emotions, then refuses to use PtV. From the beginning, the strategy would have taken a miracle, and if Scion already knew about it?

The conclusion was obvious. We were screwed.

The only reason I wasn't in a cold sweat was because it would soon become irrelevant.

I already had my get-out-of-jail-free card.

It had started with Agate's idea that Scion's barrier was only limited to a small area of real space, and that the path would be open at some point beyond the moon's orbit.

I had briefly entertained the idea of kidnapping String Theory to develop a way to get to the moon, but in the end Leet and Offensive Bias had a much better solution working together.

Agate herself could have physically flown to the moon, but at her top speed of 500 miles an hour it would have taken weeks, and if we were wrong, it would be a lot of wasted time. Not to mention Agate refused to do it.

Then last week I hired Uber and Leet shortly after taking over Coil's organization. Leet had squandered a lot of potential, through no fault of his own, on building cool techs early on when he didn't know about his restrictions. Entire tech trees were out of his reach now because he'd built critical components that were needed for everything else. Fortunately, he was quite meticulous and kept a lot of documentation around, so after I hired him last week, we discovered that Haywire-style portals could be developed, which then became my top priority. He had finished it a while ago, but to ensure this wouldn't blow up in my face, I kept it in storage until Offensive Bias was ready to use its Trump-Thinker power to reverse engineer it before rebuilding it again, even integrating some of the limited information on Haywire's notes that came with Dragon's database.

Unlike Agate, the new portal Tinkertech could directly target the moon for a portal. So we opened up a portal right at the edge of the range limit, and sent Agate through, attached to a rocket courtesy of Offensive Bias.

It wasn't long before Agate confirmed that she reached a point in real space where the barrier was gone. She also confirmed that the range limit on portals moved with her—so while the shards had a spherical limit centered on Earth where they were stationary, if Agate was on the moon, she could make portals to the space beyond the moon. At the same time, the ability to make stable portals was related to local gravity sources too, such that the range limit for Agate wasn't quite spherical while on the moon, but drastically reduced on the side of the moon's orbit around the Earth that was opposite of the moon's current position and much bigger within the moon's own gravitational pull.

Regardless, the path was open, and it would take about 12 seconds to shift planes, including the 2 seconds it would take for Agate make a portal for me to get to the space beyond Scion's barrier, and ten seconds to activate the ARMP: User Travel to a random plane.

In other words, I had already achieved my main goal in a rather sudden way, and had no real reason to stay in Wormverse except gathering more power that I could take with me to the next plane, or building up my power base here in support of future activities.

As such, I had turned my attention towards preparing to leave.

Before leaving, I had two main concerns. The first was to gather power that wouldn't be rendered useless by going to another plane.

If other planes didn't have Wormvoid, most Tinkertech might become useless.

I couldn't take shards with me because they were simply too large to fit in the tunnel through Kaleidoscape. Even if I did manage to do it, if the new plane had no Wormvoid or alternate Earths, the shards would still be useless, or even crush me to death by appearing on top of me.

Trying to bring people other than myself was dangerous. Attempting to bring more souls, or any soul made of too many spiritrons, was hypothesized to increase the chance of attracting the attention of Beasts of the World, whatever the Wormverse counterpart was, or even more dangerous universe-level protective measures while we passed through the Second Magic's path to the Root during the first portion of Kaleidoscape Pathway formation. Even if their existence was merely conjecture, I had no intention of testing my luck against such godly entities yet. Maybe if the person coming along was extremely useful, but since capes were basically certain to lose their powers because I couldn't bring their shards, it was an unnecessary risk for little gain.

Magecraft wasn't immune to this problem of incompatibility either. Magics other than True Magic generally had Thaumaturgical Systems behind them. Only the simplest and most universal magics, or magics closer to the Root could be expected properly to work in other planes. I suppose Planeswalker magics also qualified as being "closer to the Root".

So if Wormvoid was unique to Worm, what did that leave me with?

Knowledge was obviously one source of power. Cranial's services had been convenient for this, and information stored digitally was also vital.

Biological modifications or constructs were potentially another, as long as they worked off of normal physics and biology rather than any dimensional shenanigans. Amelia's projects, under my influence, was already focused on this.

Mundane technology was an option too, but I had to weigh that against the Tinkertech I would want to at least _try_ to bring along. I could only bring enough stuff to fit in a space equivalent to a commercial van.

Money and raw materials were potentially useful as well. Any other universe that had human civilization would probably find precious gems and metals good for trading, and if it was a modern Earth type of setting, US currency could be tradeable too.

The other main concern was wrapping up my business in Worm. Leaving Worm was not necessarily a permanent state of affairs. With a Beacon here, I could conceivably return whenever I wanted. The only limitation was that it took time to build up the special energy necessary to access the Creation Mystery in each plane. One trip's worth of energy took about a week to gather, and Agate did not know any way of speeding it up. The energy was simply passively drawn from the Root as long as she had a partner with a soul and continued to have the authority to use the Second Magic. Zelretch had been experimenting with using GRAIN, True Ether, and the Sixth Imaginary Factor to artificially create this new form of energy, but it had not been fruitful by the time I obtained Agate.

In practical terms, this meant that I would benefit from ensuring that CRUCIBLE stayed viable as an organization, delaying the end of the world by killing Jack Slash, and establishing a power base I could draw resources from, if I can find a way to move more stuff between planes before Scion destroyed everything.

It was with these thoughts in mind that I had been aggressively expanding our economic and military power base with Offensive Bias, the true capabilities of which made our rule over Brockton Bay look like mere child's play.


	50. Convolution 5-4

**Convolution 5.4**

There was nothing particularly special about this workshop at first glance. A small and inconspicuous power source, clean and tidy yet stocked with a wide array of tools and machinery. There were computers, servers, welding tools, scanners, raw materials, etc. The amount of mundane equipment was in such quantity that one might not suspect it was a Tinker workshop, and that was not to obscure its true nature, but merely reflective of the owner's access to wealth, resources, and mundane manufacturing capabilities.

This wasn't only Offensive Bias' workshop, but actually where Uber, Leet, and Chariot worked on projects I commissioned of them. They'd still do some of the work at their own workshops, but when coordinating together and if they needed access to my state of the art equipment, they'd come here.

They weren't here now because after the first portal tech project, the hack of using Offensive Bias to reverse engineer Leet's tech stopped working.

The problem with finding ways to exploit the shard power interactions was that the shards were alive and they didn't want people to find cheap ways to circumvent their deliberately set restrictions. They'd encourage people to find new ways to use powers as part of the Cycle's experimentation, but wouldn't let us experiment much with the rules they deliberately set.

As a result, any other tech that Leet had a failure chance on also had the same failure chance when Offensive Bias reverse engineered it, rendering Leet more or less useless again.

I went to the console and typed in some commands. Shortly after, a section of the wall was moved and a portal opened. There was another portal like this hidden in a different section of the wall, only much smaller with just wires going through, allowing Offensive Bias to maintain connectivity on both sides.

I went through the man sized portal to inspect our new military-industrial complex on Earth M2, a new humanless and mostly barren dimension that had tons of metal and rock but not much water or life.

How did we suddenly have a "military-industrial complex"? That was because Offensive Bias had copied Dragon's database, and it had a vast number of Tinkertech designs to use from the most basic tools to advanced Dragonsuits. Offensive Bias not only had the database, but also Dragon's shard power as well. In the same way that Case 53s kept their powers after getting their memories wiped, Offensive Bias as a copy of Dragon also kept its power. And because we removed the restrictions on disobeying lawful authority, parallel processing, and building subordinate AI, it was able to make use of various technologies banned by the PRT with exponential growth potential.

On the other side was a fully self sustaining operation including raw material extraction, processing, manufacture, and militarization. The latest map and report from Offensive Bias showed that the industrial area spanned about seven hundred square meters, while the resource extraction had been spread out to various suitable areas with a combined area of more than two square kilometers.

While mass manufacturing Tinkertech on the scale of assembly lines was still impossible because the technology to make the mass manufacturing equipment was also Tinkertech, and nobody would have such designs until Masamune was found, Offensive Bias was perfectly capable of mass manufacturing mundane technology. With parallel processing, Bias could also separately and simultaneously engage in Tinkering up numerous copies of the same Tinkertech, which was for practical purposes the same as small scale mass manufacturing.

The whole complex was manned by drones and administrated by Offensive Bias directly. Big Rig's large scale construction drones were very useful once reverse engineered, and Dragon had production-capable drone designs from seven other Tinkers. Everything was powered by Tinkertech hybrid fission-fusion generators built with the assistance of a Mastered Bakuda.

Agate phased through the ceiling and flew up high in the air, revealing to me the full scope of the expanding facilities. Even now, large teams of drones were moving about, constructing along the boundary spreading out in all directions.

The lack of relay bugs on M2 meant that Taylor's network wasn't present in this dimension except for a small range centred on the permanent portal that connected the wiring to our underground Brockton Bay base.

But I didn't need to hide most of this from her or Amelia. One of them would have to take the reins of CRUCIBLE once I left, and they would need all the firepower they could get. It was a terrible oversight for Cauldron to have allowed Bakuda to die in the Birdcage, with her bombs being one of the only things capable of damaging or even destroying an Endbringer. With Bakuda now under my control through Canary and Offensive Bias to massively boost production, we were amassing an enormous stockpile that already numbered at over three thousand bombs, including 24 with a damage/effect radius comparable to or higher than 100 kilotons of TNT, and the 9-megaton EMP bomb from before.

On my orders to build a bigger bomb than ever, Bakuda produced a 5-gigaton bomb after an extended Tinker fugue. This last bomb was estimated to be capable of destroying a landmass the size of Texas. Unfortunately it also wound up so large and unwieldy that it couldn't be deployed by anything Offensive Bias currently had access to, and wouldn't fit through any portal we could make either, rendering it useless. I had to dismantle it as the only thing it would be threatening was myself, and perhaps Brockton Bay through the small permanent portal we used to maintain electronic connectivity, if it went off accidentally or by enemy infiltration.

' _Can we do another bomb test?_ ' Agate asked.

' _Which one?_ '

' _How about one of the 600 kiloton ones?'_

"Bias, prepare to test a 600 series bomb."

The console reacted and initiated the launch sequence. A list of potential targets were identified. On this barren planet, it didn't really matter where we targeted, so I chose one close enough for us to see the results of.

A few minutes later, I confirmed the launch, and a missile shot forth at hypersonic speeds from our silo.

Several more minutes later, there was a bright flash and a huge mushroom cloud towered in the distance, as viewed from Agate's perspective.

' _Encore!_ _Let's do a test on another dimension where we can scare people!_ '

' _No that's too risky. Maybe just before we leave the plane._ '

O O O

Every day, I would visit Paige. Sometimes I did it by myself, other times I went together with Amelia and Taylor, like now.

Paige had her own living space here with simple furniture and basic amenities provided by Offensive Bias.

Using electronic voice transmission, she updated the Master effect on Bakuda periodically to keep her working. Recordings of Canary's voice did not work, unfortunately, only live transmissions.

After the new facilities were built, our prisoners had all been moved over to M2 and kept in dark, isolated prisons with bomb collars attached to them.

Only Bakuda was up and about regularly to Tinker while under Canary's Master effect, and we also applied the additional insurance of a virus that would have debilitating effects on her body if not given a special "signal" shot every day.

Coil was occasionally used for small experiments and non-critical tasks, but I did not want to risk him ending the wrong timeline in anything very important.

I input the password at the security keypad and the door slid open.

The room had a uniformly white colour scheme and no windows or decorations. The bathroom was a secondary room inside, and food was delivered by a robot from time to time. Security cameras monitored the room 24/7, because we needed to ensure that in case her actions in the Birdcage were the result of third-party interference, they wouldn't be able to kidnap or her from under our noses.

Paige was at the desk in front of her computer which had only intranet access. It was hooked up to a microphone and speaker system she could use to transmit her power to other areas of the base, or use for recreational singing.

At my entrance, she stood up and greeted us. She was wearing a custom set of clothes I designed which served as her uniform every day.

I returned her greeting before going to the couch to sit down, waving her over.

"How are you holding up, Paige?" I asked as she sat down beside me. Amelia and Taylor took chairs on the opposite side.

"I'm fine. It's comfortable here. I miss the concerts, but I'm happy that I can sing at least. I didn't have a chance to sing for months when I was waiting for the trial."

"Have you had any more visions?" Taylor asked.

"No! No, definitely not." Paige shook her head vigorously.

"You sound like you don't want to have visions anymore. I thought you believed they were sent by God," Taylor said.

"Th-they are! And I do hope for more guidance."

"Really? Guidance for what? Aren't you happy about being here?"

"N-nothing, just making s-sense of things. I'm very h-happy here."

"You don't sound sure of yourself." Taylor said.

Paige sputtered. "I-I am!"

Taylor frowned. "You really don't want to leave?"

"No! No! Please, I'm very grateful for everything I have here!"

I put a hand on Paige's shoulder. "Please don't misunderstand, Paige, Taylor's not trying to make you leave. She just has a very blunt way of speaking."

Taylor looked sheepish and muttered an apology. I felt Paige's muscles relax slightly.

I continued. "We just want you to know that you have the option."

"Yeah. We can set you up with everything you need to live normally again. You could go back to Earth Bet, or we could bring you to another Earth. I can change your face and try to develop a way to keep your feathers and powers under tighter control so that singing won't activate it unless you want it to," Amelia said.

"B-but my power's useful to you, isn't it? I want to repay you for everything you've done for me," Paige said, tensing again with wide eyes and looking between me and Amelia.

"You don't have to worry about that. We only asked you to use your powers on Bakuda and Coil so you would have something to do," Amelia said, giving me a look as if warning me not to deny it. "My power works on brains, so I can just permanently reform them with a touch. Your power is actually less convenient and riskier for us to use long term."

"Oh." Paige shrunk in on herself. "I'm sorry."

Over the week, I'd deliberately spent less time with Amelia with the excuse of focusing on building up the military complex, which caused her to become increasingly annoyed with my extended stays on Earth M2 where Paige was also housed, and that annoyance translated into dislike for Paige.

Shortly after I praised Paige for putting Bakuda to work efficiently during our last group visit, Amelia told me she was ready to use her powers to convert villains to our cause, and that we didn't need Paige to do it anymore. We already successfully practiced a few times on the E88 mooks I captured before.

"I can also help you forget your trauma in the Birdcage. You can have a fresh start," Amelia added.

"F-forget? Y-you mean…!"

Amelia nodded seriously.

"No, please! I don't want to forget anything!" Paige pleaded in a desperate tone.

Amelia crossed her arms and retorted with an undercurrent of frustration. "Stop acting like I suggested something awful. I'm just trying to put it in a nice way. We can't let anybody know that CRUCIBLE rescued a convicted criminal—"

Paige visibly flinched.

"—from the Birdcage, so you can't keep those memories. It's also to protect you from any opportunistic group that would take credit for it if we only erased the part where you met us and they could use that to take advantage of you. It's for your own good, get it?"

"S-sorry, I didn't mean it like that…" Paige said in a weak voice.

Paige certainly wouldn't want to forget her pact with her "God", and most likely panicked as she felt the hostility from Amelia. I had to support Amelia's claim of it being for Paige's own good, to ensure that she understood that there was no escaping the memory erasure, if she made the unwise decision to leave.

"It's alright Paige. You've been in a bad place for a long time, caused by a lot of terrible people with bad intentions. It's not strange to think the worst of everyone you meet, when previously everyone you knew was evil. We won't hold it against you. Just remember that we're all on your side, and we'll get through this together," I said, squeezing her shoulder. It was important for Paige to feel that she wanted to stay of her own volition, that staying would further indebt her to us, that any doubt of our noble intentions was a result of her own issues and she was lucky that we were so tolerant.

"I'm sorry." she said again. "I didn't mean it like that. I know you're good to me."

"And you can stay as long as you want. We're completely fine with having you with us, and we're happy that you want to help us fight for justice. Right, Taylor, Amelia?"

Taylor nodded while Amelia gave a non-committal grunt.

"T-thank you! Is there anything else I can do to help?"

"Well, not yet, but soon I think we will have something for you."

O O O

"Are you really going to let her stay with us? What if her 'God' tells her to kill _us_ next?" Amelia said heatedly as we returned back to the office. "Taylor, you agree with me don't you? She's crazy and dangerous."

"She's not that bad." Taylor said. "She did everything we told her to do and never complained about our security measures."

"She prays for _hours_ each day. Instead of being grateful to _us_ for rescuing her, she thinks it's all the work of her 'God'!"

"Uhm…but what if she really did get a divine vision?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah right. You're the one who said It was probably some other cape trying to take advantage of our rescue op."

"But we can't just _force_ her to leave," said Taylor.

"So you agree that you don't want to keep her here?"

"I didn't say that…"

Amelia huffed and crossed her arms again.

"Taylor, why don't you go home and get some rest? There's nothing else planned for tonight," I said. "Amelia and I will head home too. Bias and Heroux can handle things here."

Taylor caught the hint and nodded with one last glance at Amelia. "Okay. Bye guys."

I looked at Amelia who gave me a glare. With a sigh, I opened a portal to our apartment that I rented after acquiring the first portion of Coil's funds.

I tilted my head back through the portal when I saw that she didn't follow. "Are you just going to stand there all night? Come on."

She grumbled but followed.

O O O

A/N: Just going to take the time to respond to some of the recent reviews since Interlude 4.x. This turned out surprisingly long, so next time I'll be responding the chapter after a review.

Kaiya Azure: It's actually impressive that you caught on to the plan to get rid of Teacher during 4.x. A lot of other readers thought the plan was to get Canary to team up with Teacher, as per the act Canary put on during the first part of 4.y. Someone like Teacher would have been extremely useful for his Trump power, but he's really still quite dangerous and risky if used that way, as you say.

TheOnlyKing (4.y review): Yeah. Though, as you can see from this chapter, she is still devoted. It's not like Agate can't appear to her again at some point.

Dragonfang1917: I'm glad you liked the execution. I put a lot of effort in getting the details right.

Father Chaos: There are some cult fics, but I don't know of any based on an SI.

duckie288: That was the Geas curse.

steelblade883: Well I hope I don't disappoint. And your username is getting messed up by the anti-link parser.

Eluvian Camaris: I agree with the sentiment. I'm not a fan of stories that use other characters' stupidity to make the main character look smart either.

ZhaWarudo: Haha. Our MC loves what he does, for better or worse. He might have a chance to find a hobby in a more relaxing world.

PsylentFox: Kaleidus is quite genre savvy. He believes himself to be the true main character, as noted in the first chapter, therefore he doesn't need to follow the plot. From a Doylist perspective, I think part of the appeal of multiverse as a whole is exploring and doing your own thing-at least that's one reason I like writing this, and you don't really get to explore if you stick with the main characters.

OrigamiGuyII: They do retain powers.

sanjiyanunkara: I won't deny it. But some would argue that all authors are SIing into their stories as a Gary Stu/Mary Sue.

TheOnlyKing (5-2 review): It's a matter of their personalities. While Amelia is more dependent on Kaleidus, Taylor naturally has fewer doubts about her morality. Also the relationship between Amelia and Kaleidus was more personal from the start before they started CRUCIBLE, whereas Taylor first joined in the context of a hero team, and thus defers to Kaleidus' leadership.

superpierce: Luckily they have Ascalon to keep Dragon in the dark. Still, they've avoided being too active on Earth Bet for exactly that reason.

vequest: I toyed around with that idea, but ultimately Agate and Kaleidus think together too much for that to really make sense within the story.

victorsan12345: Not really. If Coil's simulation is perfect, then it doesn't make any practical difference. The Kaleidus in the simulated timeline would also be able to think.

babiloniaolimpo: I'm afraid my Spanish isn't good enough to respond in Spanish, but thanks for your comments. Worm powers are indeed confusing, especially to those who haven't read the source material. The first time I saw the rating categories, I didn't find them intuitive to understand at all, without an explanation, despite their supposed intuitiveness in-story.

CD123505: The mechanics of shard powers aren't fully explained. Wormvoid as a concept certainly exists in the source, but not named or well described. The canon is that shard powers do indeed derive most of their exotic effects from manipulating dimensions, from the connection in the brain, to "generating matter/energy", to building Tinkertech out of junk. The range limit of Earth's atmosphere or sometimes to the moon is an observation that is true but never explained, so I came up with my own explanation, based on the fact that the shards don't seem to have FTL tech or any way to move between star systems other than blowing up every version of a planet simultaneously.

BuddhaBuddha: ^_^ Is it really so strange to act hammy when you find yourself in fiction?

Lord All Bright: Wow, top 5? That's very flattering.

And thanks to everyone else who reviewed!


	51. Convolution 5-5

**Convolution 5.5**

I went to the fridge and took out a couple of ice cream packs, then brought them to her where she sat sulking on the sofa.

"Really?" She asked, shaking her head.

"What? They taste great, and with your new Bionanite Swarm, I don't have to worry about getting heart disease," I said, opening a pack for myself.

The Bionanite Swarm was the focus of her research over the past week, an all-purpose body optimization and enhancement network. It was a line of research that extended from Amelia's prior use of her body's friendly bacteria as a way to bypass the Manton Limit, which she thought would be more fruitful than trying to make a full living symbiotic armour. Given my understanding of its capabilities so far, I was inclined to agree. For now, the two of us were only ones equipped with the Advanced Bionanite Swarm. Taylor received a basic version that lacked nerve connections, conscious control and dependent features, because those functions didn't work for her and posed a potential safety hazard, with our current hypothesis being some sort of conflict with her bug control senses.

Amelia didn't touch the ice cream and instead turned on the TV, flipping through the channels rapidly. Too fast to see anything meaningful.

I waited without saying anything for a few minutes.

"Really?" I asked.

"What? I'm just looking for something decent to watch."

"You've already circled back to the first channel twice now."

She turned it off.

I sighed. "Amelia, what are you really upset about?"

"Didn't I already say it earlier?"

"I don't think you really believe Paige is a threat. She's just a victim. We've taken all the precautions we can anyway. She's harmless."

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"And she helped us a lot. Without her, we wouldn't have gotten Offensive Bias. You should be nicer to her."

"Whatever. You got what you wanted, didn't you? You want her to stay and now she's afraid of leaving because I told her we'd have to erase her memories."

"Yes. You know me so well. I wouldn't be saying anything if you were just playing bad cop to my good cop, but you clearly weren't with that tantrum at the end."

"It wasn't a tantrum. I was just sharing my opinion."

"OK. Tantrum or not, you were genuinely upset. Are you still jealous of her?"

"I'm not jealous and _never was!_ "

I said nothing in response, instead continuing to eat my ice cream.

The silence dragged on.

Eventually, I finished my ice cream.

"We aren't just a small team of three anymore, you know? We've become a large organization. We have an army of soldiers, capes on our payroll, and many more employees through the businesses we own. We haven't even started recruiting people and we're already this big. An organization like this needs strong leadership. Heroux, Reynolds, and the captains can handle the soldiers and execute missions, Offensive Bias can maintain our power base, and Calvert once he's converted can be a big help too. But none of them can _lead_ CRUCIBLE. The vision, the goals, the hard decisions, and giving inspiration…that responsibility falls to us as the founders, or else we risk losing control. If you're going to lead CRUCIBLE in the future, you will have to compromise and get along with people. You have to think of the big picture and build a circle of allies within to support you. Someone like Canary could be among your biggest and most loyal assets," I said.

"I don't want to lead anything. I'm not cut out to be a leader."

"You're already a leader of CRUCIBLE. You were famous and well-liked even before, people would rally to you if you held up a banner. You have a great power, suitable for being in the spotlight, a power that can support others and gain their trust and loyalty yet fight together with them on the front lines. People would respect that. I'm just an armchair general most of the time."

"But I don't even know what to do with my own life. How am I supposed to lead anyone else? Sure I have a strong power, but I have no vision or no charisma. The public likes me because they don't know me. All my 'friends' at school were actually just Vicky's friends or just wanted to be seen with 'the famous Panacea'. I can't get along with anyone. Not even my own family."

"What about Taylor?"

"She'll probably hate me sooner or later, once she really gets to know me."

"You don't know that. She likes and respects you now. You might even become best friends."

"Not if she ever finds out about my sick fantasies and urges. She only likes me now because she still thinks of me as a selfless healer who happens to have more than just healing powers. She actually buys in to the whole 'wanting to make a bigger impact' story you had me spew in front of the PRT HQ."

"But it's not _wrong_ , is it? You joined CRUCIBLE to help me save the world."

"I didn't have much of a choice, after running away from home. That doesn't make me a good person."

"But you could have quit at any time, if you truly wanted to. You had more than enough money since I took down Coil for you to run away again and live comfortably for the rest of your life. You didn't have to fight the ABB or Dragonslayers. But you did and you're still here."

"Why are you trying so hard to make me sound like a good person?" She growled.

"Why are you trying so hard to make yourself out to be a horrible person? You haven't done anything to deserve it," I countered.

"Because I am! Every day I imagine a new horrible way to use my power. Every time I touch someone I get the urge to do a little more. You say I'm in control, you get me to practice safely and slowly and responsibly, but it's not working! I'm _losing_ control each time. I'm not even sure what I did to the last guy I was supposed to reform, cause I was angry and couldn't think straight and I was too scared to tell you about it—"

' _Uh-oh,_ ' Agate said. ' _Maybe you shouldn't let her use her power on you for awhile. I can't protect you from her power._ '

My eyes widened, and she continued.

"—because I'm petty, and selfish, and yes I'm fucking jealous, because even when she's crazy Canary can still do a better job than me and you knew that. I just can't live up to your expectations." She stopped to catch her breath.

"That's okay. I never expected you to use your powers for reforming villains. If you aren't ready after all, it's not a big deal. What's wrong with letting Canary do it? You're important to the team and important to me regardless."

"What's wrong is that I know you _wish_ I could be better than that! But I can't just _believe_ in myself and forget my doubts and keep going like Taylor can, because I _know_ everything's going to go wrong and then you'll _really_ be disappointed."

"You are perfectly fine the way you are, Amelia. Everyone has issues, that's completely natural."

"Sure. Everyone has issues. My issues are just so much bigger than everyone else's. If you're so happy with how I am right now, then why didn't you just tell me to reform Coil and Bakuda a long time ago?"

"I thought you weren't ready? The last time I suggested something like that—"

"Yeah! Last time I had a fucking mental breakdown and almost killed you, and now you act like you're walking on eggshells around me, always careful not to seem like you're pushing me too fast, not to say the wrong things, or else I'll lose my mind again. And I probably will. That's why you came to me, isn't it? That's why you keep trying to convince me I'm a good person. You want to change the future. Stop me from destroying the world. Yeah. That must be the real reason you want Canary around. She's your insurance in case you can't bring out the good in me. I was always going to become a villain in the end."

"Woah, woah, slow down. What are you talking about? It's Scion that's going to destroy the world, not you. You would have helped to save it."

"Really? Give me your hand and tell me that I would have helped saved the world if you didn't interfere with the timeline. And don't try to trick me again. I thought carefully about what you said the first time and I know what you did. You only said I would be critical to the world's future, not that I would be on the good side. I want a straight answer this time!"

I looked at her outstretched arm and visibly hesitated while I thought through my next steps. While I definitely believed she helped save the world, I might have a hard time if she decided to ask anything else. What was the right way to handle this?

"I wasn't trying to trick you. I—"

"What? Now that you know I fucked someone up you're afraid of me now? Well you should be! 'Cause I'm—"

No time for further deliberation.

I grabbed her hand.

She fell silent and her eyes slowly roamed from the point where our hands touched up to my eyes. With the enhanced senses granted to me by the bionanites, and the connection our bionanite networks shared, I felt the pulse of her heart spike from 100 to 130 beats per minute.

There was a reflexive attempt to jerk away that her own bionanites suppressed at the muscle nerves, maintaining her body's stability instead of allowing her to start shaking with anxiety.

"Amelia, you would have played a critical role in the defeat of Scion, if I didn't interfere with the timeline," I said firmly.

She breathed deeply to steady herself.

"Was I a hero then?"

"You were a hero in my eyes."

"So nobody else did. How did I get out of the Birdcage?"

"Everyone in the Birdcage was given amnesty if they were willing to join the fight against Scion. I don't know the details beyond that."

"So I was in there the whole time up to the end."

"The person who saved the world. How did she do it? How could _one person_ save the world from Scion?"

"…it wasn't exactly one person. She was able to control every other cape in the world with her power."

She slouched as if losing the strength to sit up.

"You mean…she Mastered everyone..."

"Yes."

"…and she didn't let them go after the fight."

"Kind of. She lost her mind in the process."

Amelia threw my hand away and backed away with an angry and painful expression.

"Why are you going so far for me? Isn't it obvious that I'm hopeless? I should just die before I lose my mind and enslave everyone!" she shouted as she teared up.

"You've got the wrong idea," I said, moving forward to try and grab her hand again.

She dodged me and backed away with wide eyes. "No! Don't touch me!"

I hastily retracted my hand. "Look, it wasn't you, alright?"

"Yeah, it's just the monster hiding inside of me! Like that makes any difference!"

"No, that's not what I mean. It was somebody else."

"So it's just a coincidence that I also have the power turn every cape in the world into a loyal puppet? And just a coincidence that I'm also going to be eighteen in two years when it happens?"

"Yeah. Only because you have a late birthday."

"Bullshit! Why won't you just say who it was then? Why hide it from me?"

"Fine. It was Taylor, okay?"

"Her power doesn't even work on capes! If you're going comfort me with a lie, at least make it believable!"

"I'm not lying. Her power doesn't work on capes right now, but you can modify it."

" _No_ I can't!"

"You've never even tried, how would you know that? You just need to modify her Corona Pollentia."

"That's insane! Nobody knows how the Corona Pollentia works!"

"Bonesaw did a lot of research on it. She helped—"

" _That_ 's the best story you can come up with? What kind of monster did I become that working with _Bonesaw_ to experiment on Taylor's brain is the _better_ scenario?"

"No—it's not better—I mean, you have to remember the context, it was a fight for the survival of humanity—"

"Who was I to you?" She cut me off with a quiet and steady tone.

"What?"

"Who was I to you?" She asked me again.

"I don't understand."

"Just what did I mean to you, that you would throw away humanity's impossible victory just for a chance to save me?"

"You think I'm a time traveler?"

"It fits."

"What makes you say that? I thought I told you I came from another plane of existence."

"Because it's a lot more believable than you coming from a different, completely unrelated, 'plane of existence' that just happens to have 'records' about the future of _this_ plane. Everything makes perfect sense if you travelled back in time. You know things about the future, but you're not a precog. You're not a cape, because you would have triggered in the future. Your 'wand' isn't magic, it's space-time manipulating Tinkertech that came back with you. You know so much about me, because you met me in the future."

"That's a pretty good theory," I said with an amused smile. "You must have spent a lot of time trying to figure it out."

"So then, were we…"

Her eyes darted away for a moment before returning hesitantly to my face, where I held a steady gaze to her and her eyes darted away again. "…were we…?"

"Lovers, you mean?" I suggested with a quirked eyebrow.

I thought her expression just then looked just a bit hopeful. It was unfortunate that I had to squash that hope. In the long-run, it would be better for her to know the truth.

"But we don't have the right orientation match. You _can't_ fall in love with me."

"I…could fix that," she said softly.

"I know, Amelia. But we were not lovers, and I am not a time traveler. Your theory is good, but it isn't correct. Outlandish it may be, what I told you before was the truth. I am a traveler from a different plane of existence."

She looked at once both disappointed and irritated again. I pressed on.

"I didn't come here for you, or on some grand quest to change the future. You once asked me if I really wanted to save the world or if I would rather just go back home. Back then, I was trapped in here with everyone else, and I didn't have much of a choice but to take up the fight for the sake of my own survival. If you aren't a good person for helping me because you had no choice, then neither am I. It's not like I care any more than you do about the nameless masses out there."

"So, what are you trying to say? We're both bad people?"

"No. It's not evil to be selfish. It's human nature."

"Selfish doesn't even begin to describe the kind of sick fantasies I have!"

"What is better – to be born good, or to overcome one's own evil nature through great effort?"

At my question, she at first looked confused, then stunned, and settled on simple silence.

"It is rare to find a righteous person, who does good for nothing but the good feelings it brings. But it is even rarer to find a person who cannot enjoy doing good, yet lives with the torment of holding back their true desires. What greater virtue is there, than to sacrifice one's right to the pursuit of happiness and condemn oneself to a living hell for the sake of strangers? That is what you have been doing all these years. I don't wish you were a better person, Amelia. I wish you would stop worrying so much and just allow yourself to be happy."

Another few seconds of silence, then it was like the floodgates had opened. Tears began streaming down her face, but they were quickly reabsorbed by her bionanites as they slid on her skin.

I walked over and pulled her into a hug. She didn't try to dodge this time.

"You've done enough. You don't need to keep holding yourself to an impossible standard," I whispered as she leaned her face into my chest.

"You have the right to be happy too," I continued while stroking her hair.

"So go ahead and be petty. Be selfish. Be jealous. I won't think any less of you, because I'm the same way."

"You're better," she said with a muffled voice.

"I hide it better. And I've had more time to figure things out. To come to terms with what I am."

"Then…you'll teach me?"

I gently lifted her hand with mine and moved so that I could see her face again. "Didn't I promise already? When you lose your way, I'll hold your hand and guide you."

"Yeah. You did," she said quietly. My gaze was locked to hers and I saw portrait of myself through a brown lens, a man in a small circular world empty but for himself, holding onto an outstretched hand coming from out of the circle's bounds, a black hole in his chest threatening to engulf the rest.

"Hey. Close your eyes for a moment."

"Huh? Why?"

"I'm going to guide you. Right now."

She nodded and closed her eyes.

"Clear your mind of stray thoughts. Focus on my voice and nothing else. There is nothing but my voice. Let my voice give you focus as you listen to each word. Now breathe deeply, so very deep until you can't breath anymore, and hold it." I waited for her to take in a lungful of breath.

"Now slowly breathe out. Very slowly. As slowly as you can, relax your body and breath out steady, steady, steady…and with each second passing you relax a bit more," I said, speaking softly and slowly. "Now focus on your breath and lightly breathe in again, and slowly breathe out, naturally and steadily. Just like that. With every breath out, you are relaxing more and more." I maneuvred into position to hold her as she relaxed.

"Relax your mind…relax your head. Relax your face…relax your eyes…relax your mouth and tongue. Your thoughts and worries are melting away from you with each and every breath as you relax more and more. Your eyelids are getting heavier. So incredibly heavy, because you're tired and just want to relax. And you are. You're relaxing so much you don't have the strength to open your eyes anymore. You keep relaxing. Relax your ears, relax your neck, relax your chest and arms and hands…your legs and your feet. The sound of my voice flowing through you like a wave of relaxation and comfort…and you know you can let me guide you with my voice. Let me guide you and take you along to the deepest relaxation you've ever had, to a place where everything is quiet and comfortable and peaceful."

She sagged into my arms. I opened a portal and slowly took her through even as I continued to speak to guide this meditative exercise.

On the other side, I jumped and floated into the air with her. "Everything that's been weighing you down has fallen away. You feel light without burdens, relaxing completely, away from everything. Here, there is silence. Your mind is clear. You are free. Can you feel it?"

We landed gently again like feathers in the wind.

"I'm free…" She murmured.

"You are free. Your power is quiet, and you are yourself and nothing more. Like having a refreshing nap, you are energized by the realization. You gain a new strength and vigour infusing every part of your body. Because you are free."

"I'm free…I'm free?" She reached for my hand with her other free hand as if trying to reassure herself that I was still here.

"I can't feel it anymore. What's going on? It's so quiet. My power…how?"

"You can open your eyes now."

She did, and gasped.

O O O


	52. Convolution 5-6

**Convolution 5.6**

What lay before us was a sphere of blue, brown, green and rolling white clouds, a pale glowing atmosphere, under the backdrop of a deep dark void with a million uncountable tiny lights.

A planet as seen from the observation deck of our moon base.

Since it was possible for me to reach the moon by portal, it only made sense to build moon bases. This near side base was put in a new humanless dimension and its existence erased from Offensive Bias' database after its construction so that it wouldn't be easily visible or found from the Earth M2 surface, if anybody seized control of M2's surface assets. Now it was run by a disconnected copy of Offensive Bias named 002-Enduring Witness who would stay in hibernation most of the time except to maintain supplies. It was a safe retreat and a good way to deal with very dangerous parahuman foes.

Enduring Witness's shard connection failed only on the dark side of the moon, but still worked on the visible side. It would also work as long as Enduring Witness could execute code somewhere in range, then transmit the output out of range. I also brought Cricket for further testing, and her powers stopped working past the Earth's atmosphere. Neither of them suffered any problems other than the powers failing. No comas or blue screen errors. After that, I tested Coil and Bakuda as well, and both of their powers failed past Earth's atmosphere, but Bakuda's bombs and most Tinkertech in general continued to work far past the edge of the moon's orbit.

As such, I deemed it safe and useful to bring Amelia here.

She stared at the planet below in wonder. "It looks beautiful."

"It does. I named it Earth-Refuge. Because this is a refuge away from everything, hidden and secret even from the rest of CRUCIBLE, including Offensive Bias. And here on the moon, your connection to your shard is very weak. When you're feeling overwhelmed, you can come here to center yourself."

"Thank you, Kaleidus. It really is nice to be…free," she said, still staring at the planet.

We stayed standing there, appreciating the view for a long moment. Thoughts of my reflection in Amelia's pupils turned up again, the image overlayed on the planet. There was a feeling I couldn't place, growing stronger by the second.

Here, away from everything, detached from worldly concerns, I found myself growing restless instead of at peace.

This was just a taste of what was to come. Soon, I would leave even this behind to a whole new plane.

I almost couldn't wait for the exciting adventures to come. And yet...wasn't I hesitating?

I'd been more or less ready for a while. There were only a few things left to do, which I'd been procrastinating. I could make up all sorts of reasons to stay, preparing myself for the journey. But really, none of them were that important, because I could just come back whenever I felt like it.

So why was I hesitating?

' _That's loneliness you're feeling,_ ' said Agate. ' _You've been feeling alone for a very long time. Because there's no one else like you._ '

' _I'm not alone. I have you._ '

' _You feel alone. I can't make up for what you're missing. I'm just a Mystic Code. Even if I can think and feel, I don't have a soul. I don't truly have independent hopes and dreams like humans do, I'm just an echo of you and Master Zelretch._ _I am whatever you want me to be, but I can't be what you really need. I can only help you find it._ '

' _And what do I need? Don't tell me it's love or a human connection. I've tried that before. It didn't really work_.'

' _I don't know. I only know what you know. But there's a reason that Master Zelretch gave me to you, and it's not just because you happened to be there. There's a reason that Master Zelretch was drawn to that forest in the first place. He believed that he would meet someone there who would was better suited than him to wield me. Someone who couldn't get bored or go crazy experiencing the infinity beyond._ '

' _Why not himself?'_

' _He was already bored of living. The Second Magic is a curse worse than vampirism in his view. When you realize that the world is like a simulation being run by future versions of yourself, when there's an infinite number of copies of yourself and reality is just a choice made from culling world lines, what is the point of doing anything? It doesn't matter what one individual Master Zelretch wants. It only matters what the probability distribution is, aggregated from every Zelretch of past and future. How much of his choices since obtaining the Second Magic were his own? Was it even his own achievement to obtain the Second Magic, or just some other True Magician Zelretch who did it and decided that all other merely Magi Zelretchs should be culled? Maybe it never mattered at all. Maybe Alaya culled the world lines in just the right way to ensure that somebody—anybody—would obtain the Second Magic and be there to fight Crimson Moon and inherit the curse of vampirism so that there would always be more future Zelretchs to simulate worlds where humanity survives.'_

' _And I'm somehow better suited to dealing with this madness?_ '

' _Not the Second Magic. Our ability to travel the planes is closely related to it, and we're kind of using hacks to do it, but it's really something else._ _It could be developed into its own True Magic_ , _or even something greater._ '

' _Still, what made Zelretch think I'd be more suited to handle this power?_ '

' _Kaleidus, did you forget? During Master Zelretch's battle against the Planeswalker, there were a bunch of tears into Kaleidoscape that leaked Primordial Chaos energy. Every living being for tens of kilometres around lost their minds or their brains just exploded. But you? A completely normal person without any magic gazed directly into the abyss beyond creation, screamed and stumbled around for a bit, then got back up like nothing happened. That was all Master Zelretch needed to know, to confirm that you were the right person to wield me. Master Zelretch himself had to deploy his Reality Marble as a Dead Apostle Ancestor, which he_ hates _using, to resist the mental contamination._ '

' _Wait what?! What is this about brains exploding? You never told me about that! And what happened to the tears or the leaked energy?'_

' _Well, the Planeswalker forced that first tear near you close, but got exhausted and retreated. Master Zelretch didn't know what to do about the rest, and also retreated assuming that the whole plane would collapse, leaving me with you._ '

' _Why didn't you say anything sooner? That means my world might not exist anymore!'_

' _No, it's still there. My Waypoint is still active, so it must not be_ completely _destroyed. There has to be a sufficiently large gravitational source to keep my Waypoints stable, remember?'_

I mentally sent an endless chain of ellipses to her.

'… _sorry? I didn't think it was important…or that you cared…'_

' _There are things on my world that could have been useful, like the Worm canon. And a certain very loyal, low maintenance, high utility party member.'_

' _You mean the one with max level skills in acting and intrigue? How do you even know she's loyal? Maybe she sent those assassins after you.'_

' _I doubt it. There's no motive. And she was in love with me.'_

' _Like she was with that guy you told her to seduce, who she had no problems killing—Oh.'_

I sent Agate a few relevant memories of just _how_ I knew that Angel was in love with me. It wasn't because she acted that way. No, she never showed anything of the sort, but my extensive secret surveillance showed that she had been hiding her feelings from me for fear that I would just use it to my advantage if I found out and didn't actually reciprocate her feelings, because she knew exactly what kind of person I was. She was right, of course, that was the whole reason I used her. That kind of irrational loyalty was hard to cultivate.

' _We got Amelia pretty quick._ '

' _Amelia's loyalty isn't irrational right now. She simply doesn't have a full understanding of me yet. She might not be so loyal if she knew I'm just using her for my own ends.'_

' _And Angel would? But you just said she was afraid that you would just take advantage of her.'_

' _Exactly. She was afraid precisely because she knew that she would let herself be taken advantage of, even if I didn't love her. Knowing that it would make her miserable, she would still do it out of love. That's the irrational part.'_

' _Kinda like how Amelia kept healing people even though she hated it?'_

' _Yeah._ '

' _And that's why you're focusing so much on her. She has the potential to be like Angel._ '

' _You catch on pretty quick._ '

' _Or maybe you liked Angel more than you'd like to admit. And Amelia reminds you of her._ '

' _I don't love anyone. Except maybe myself._ '

Agate sent me a dramatic gasp. ' _Not even me?!_ '

' _You're a part of me now._ _That doesn't count.'_

' _You've got it backwards._ You're _a part of_ me _now._ '

Suddenly Amelia stirred and whirled around to face me with wide eyes.

"Earlier, you said 'back then, I was trapped here with everyone else', as if you aren't trapped anymore!" She said accusingly.

"Yes, I did."

She clutched onto me with both hands. "Are you going to leave?"

"Yes, soo—"

"No, you can't!"

"I'm sorry. I can't stay. But it won't be forever. I'll come back from time to time."

" _No!_ I need you! You said you would be there to guide me! What am I going to do when you're gone?"

"I'll teach you what you need to know, and you'll take over the leadership of CRUCIBLE with Taylor. You'll be fine."

"But why? Why do you have to go? Aren't there years before Scion attacks?"

I sighed. "I'm sorry, Amelia. I think the method I knew of for defeating Scion isn't going to work, because I brought that knowledge here, and now the shards' precog powers know about it. So Scion will know about it the next time he uses his own Path to Victory. I doomed the world with my arrival. That's why, if we're to have any chance of winning, I have to go and search for new powers and means in other planes while there's still time."

"Then take me with you! I can help!" She shouted.

"It's too dangerous. My way of traveling isn't meant for more than one soul. We could both die in transit. And you won't have access to your powers while in other planes. You won't be of any use," I said with a cold expression.

She flinched.

"We could find ourselves in apocalyptic nightmares, fighting against terrible monsters and evil gods. I won't have time to babysit you, especially with the way you are now, hesitating over every little thing and constantly feeling depressed."

"I—I—but—you promised…" Her knees lost strength and she collapsed towards me.

I brushed off her hands away from me and she fell down crying.

"Get a grip, Amelia! I promised you that I'd guide you and I did just that, showing you how to meditate and calm down. I promised that I would put you back together if you fell apart, and I did just that when you were saying you wanted to die ten minutes ago. I promised that I would bear the burden of your sins with you, and I will do that if it comes down to it. But I can't be there every waking moment for you."

She sobbed, kneeling on the ground, face looking down. "…I'm sorry…I'll learn…I'll get better…!" She crawled over and grabbed onto my leg. "Please, don't leave me…! I can't live without you!"

"Look at yourself. You aren't ready to go with me. If you're already like this at the merely thought of me going away for a bit, how much worse will it be after we leave? What if we get separated by outside interference, and you find yourself all alone in a new world powerless with no easy way to find me? And if I have to worry about you killing yourself before I can come find you…no. It's much better if you just stay right here. At least Taylor and everyone else is here."

"No…no…!" She shook her head.

"Amelia…it hurts to see you like this. Please, get a hold of yourself."

She continued to sob and hold on to me. "Y-you're all I have now! It's not fair! You—you can't just come in to my life, show me what it's like to be _happy_ for once, and then j-just —!"

"You don't need me to be happy. You _shouldn't_ need me to be happy. That isn't healthy. "

"I don't _care_ if it's healthy or not!"

"And that worries me. That's why…I'm sorry that I have to do this. I wanted to show you this under more pleasant circumstances, it's necessary for you to do this now to overcome your issues. Enduring Witness, bring us to the float tanks. And make sure she can't hurt herself," I said with a regretful expression.

" _Affirmative,_ " the AI said over speaker. Some combat drones came over and removed her from my leg by force, restraining her.

"Kaleidus!" She screamed one last time before the drones gagged her to prevent her from biting her tongue.

"Mmmph!" She struggled with a scared expression, but even with her bionanite enhanced strength, she couldn't overcome the even stronger combined force of multiple brute-rated combat drones.

They brought her to a windowless room with two tanks inside. "Get her in the tank with foam," I ordered.

Then the drones deploy a modified containment foam that was softer and flexible—like extremely heavy and viscous liquid, pouring it over every inch of her body except the face. The foam would dissolve her clothes and tightly hold to her skin.

Finally, she was placed together with the containment foam into the tank that was filled with water and salts to provide buoyancy.

Her face floated on the surface of the water.

"Don't be afraid, Amelia. This is a float tank that will remove all sensory input. Even people who don't know how to meditate can get into deep trances here. Combined with the low-gravity environment, it's perfect for extremely deep meditation. After a while, the foam will dissolve so you can get the full experience. Think, reflect, and center yourself. I'm going to be in the tank beside you."

She continued to make muffled whimpers with wide eyes.

I took off my own clothes and the drones helped me into the other tank. Then the lid was shut, and there was nothing.

' _For the record, you're wrong about Amelia reminding me of Angel,_ ' I said to Agate. ' _Angel wouldn't be afraid to take what she wants, and she's not so clingy. She could do things on her own even if I wasn't around.'_

' _You sound like you're comparing your new girlfriend to your ex,'_ Agate teased.

' _Don't be ridiculous.'_

' _I wouldn't have said that if you didn't think it first!_ '

' _And if I really thought that I would have given word to those thoughts as narration. Don't trick our readers._ '

' _What narration…you aren't telling a story._ '

' _I'm telling the epic story of my life so I can indulge in nostalgia as I review it in the future. You'd better be keeping faithful records of everything._ '

Being the wonderful wand that she was, Agate promised to keep faithful records of everything while her fingers were crossed.

After that, Agate went silent as well to complete the sensory deprivation.

I soon lost all sense of position and time, and entered the deepest meditation I ever had.

For hours, I floated among a great swirl of infinite colours.

O O O

The next morning, Enduring Witness brought Amelia out of her tank first. After she got dressed, she waited for me on the observation deck, staring out at Earth-Refuge.

"How are you feeling now?" I asked, joining her on the deck.

"I can feel it again," she said, without looking at me.

The non-sequitur caught me off guard. "What?"

"It was always there. I thought it disappeared after you brought me here, but it wasn't gone, just muted," she said, bring her hand up to stare at her palm. "If I concentrate and reach for it, I can still use it."

She clenched her palm into a fist. "But it has no power over me now. My thoughts are my own. I am the one that's in control. I know who I am. I know what I want."

"And what do you want?" I asked, tensing. A Kaleidoscopic swirl appeared in my mind and shattered into a trillion mirrors. Prana surged through my body, Reinforcing it, starting from my feet. With only a single circuit, the process was excruciatingly slow without Agate's help, which required her to phase in and touch me.

She turned to face me with an expression of burning determination.

"To go with you, wherever that leads."

I frowned. My legs were only halfway Reinforced. "Amelia—"

"I wasn't finished. I know you think I'm not ready. But I'll _prove_ that I am. I'll do whatever it takes, learn whatever I need. I'll lead CRUCIBLE when you're gone. Then when you come back next time, you'll see for yourself that I'm worth it."

"…Are you sure? What if I die before I can make it back? What if I get trapped again, and it takes many years before I can come back?"

"Then promise me that you won't. Promise me that you'll come back. No matter how long it takes, I'll wait for you! Both of us have the bionanite swarm already, we can't die of old age. So promise me, and I'll kill Scion and wait an eternity if I have to!"

I looked at her for a long time. In her eyes I saw my reflection again. It was smiling, with a twinkle of light in the corner of her pupils like a sun shining over it.

"I see. In that case…I promise I won't die. I promise that I will come back, no matter how long it takes or what stands in my way. And when I do, I hope it will be just as you say."

After a moment, tears formed around her eyes.

"Hey, what are you crying for now? I already promised, didn't I? What do more do you want?"

"I'm not crying!" The bionanites worked furiously to remove the tears and in a matter of seconds they were gone.

"You totally were."

"It's because I'm…happy!"

O O O


	53. Interlude 5-a (The Long Night)

**Interlude 5.a (The Long Night)**

"Come back for more again? My clients usually can't handle the strain of receiving so many memories," said Cranial.

"Must be good genes," the client said as he walked in the door.

The client, known only by the moniker UnskilledNoob, had first contacted her only a little over a week ago, and arranged to buy some martial arts skills here in the same temporary exhibition area that Toybox was using during their stay in New York.

That Toybox moved every few months was a bit of an annoyance to her, but it was simply their group's method. Never stay too long in one place, lest they come under attack. Tinkers were, after all, highly sought after capes by both villains and heroes.

The downside was that members of Toybox couldn't build up a permanent workshop. Everything had to be mobile. The only exception was Dodge, who kept his workshop in a mobile pocket dimension, which the brat stubbornly refused to provide to anyone, even other members of Toybox. The only pocket dimensions he sold were attached to fix points in space, and moving them was not possible without first shutting them down.

"Not bringing your friends this time?" Cranial asked, noting the lack of the two cape bodyguards that usually came with him.

"We've done this a few times now and you seem like a decent sort. I didn't think it was worth the trouble to bring them along," he said.

"Hm." It was a mistake on his part, but one that Cranial would use well. While she would never do anything obvious that would disrupt her business in the long-term, she was a brain technology Tinker. Operating on the brain required a finesse that most other Tinkers lacked.

She could do things her clients would never notice, just a little nudge here and there, making them more likely to return, to offer up their memories for sale, and more.

"So what skill do you want this time? I should warn you that it could be dangerous. You've had too many memories transferred in too short a time," she said. That part was true. And if he noticed any peculiarities about this session, it could be blamed on his own failure to heed her advice. She had already provided a large amount of skills in martial arts, language, music, sports, sharpshooting, and more. It was far beyond the limit of most capes, even Thinkers, let alone someone who didn't have a Corona Pollentia.

"Well, can you transfer knowledge? The type of thing people learn as university degrees."

"It's possible, but quite difficult. Unlike the skills you've taken so far, that kind of knowledge has a low chance of imprinting properly, especially in long-term memory. I haven't had any clients who were satisfied with the results of that, though it's been asked for frequently."

"Shouldn't you be more eager to sell your services to me, rather than warning me of everything that could go wrong?"

"I try not to make good long-term clients scramble—"

Before she could finish speaking, her thought-interface with her tech suddenly shut down, as did all of the electronics in the workshop.

Then something stabbed into her from behind. She felt a foreign substance being pumped into her bloodstream, just before an excruciating pain flared throughout her body, as if there were a thousand needles stabbing her from the inside out.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a glowing portal being reflected on the metallic walls, with a mass of vines reaching through.

An involuntary scream was cut off by something thick and powerful constricting around her throat.

Her last vision was of the client calmly reaching inside a pocket.

So that's why he didn't come with bodyguards, she realized. He never planned to let her do the operation.

Then everything went dark.

O O O

Outside of Cranial's service room, Pyrotechnical heard the scream before it was silenced.

She took out a comms device and pressed a certain button, which would notify the rest of Toybox.

Then she rushed in to the room, guns raised.

She went through just in time to see Cranial being dragged away through a portal by a mass of vines.

Then her mind went blank as pain overwhelmed her senses.

When the rest of Toybox arrived at the scene, they found Pyrotechnical collapsed on the ground, and there was no trace of Cranial or her client.

O O O

Max Anders, CEO of Medhall, and secretly the cape villain known as Kaiser, leader of the Empire 88, shut the lights and got into bed for the night.

As he laid on the bed, his thoughts went to the invitation he had received from Faultline. A gathering of villains under truce, to discuss what to do about CRUCIBLE.

At first, he scoffed at the time. With two out of three major villain gangs gone from Brockton Bay, his E88 was the only one left.

It wasn't that he didn't see a need to deal with CRUCIBLE, or that he was arrogant enough to think that the E88 was strong enough to fight CRUCIBLE on their own. It was just that, who was left that could come to the proposed meeting at Somer's Rock?

Faultline's Crew was respectable, but other than that, the list of candidates was uninspiring.

The Merchants? A group of drug-addicted fools not worth his time.

The Undersiders? A ragtag team of kids that had no significant accomplishments to their name.

The rest were independents with even less reputation.

Yet, he ultimately found himself considering the idea seriously. Crime had all but disappeared from Brockton Bay in the short span of a week.

The E88's own attempts to seize territory from the vacuum left by the ABB and Coil achieved nothing but lost men in battles against CRUCIBLE's forces.

If it were just the mercenaries that everyone know previously worked for Coil, it wouldn't have been a significant challenge.

But the moment the fighting started, vast hordes of mutant man-sized bugs came crawling out of nowhere. All were Brute and Mover rated, with a wide assortment of other abilities and functions. They came from nearby alleys, from out of the sewers, from rooftops and garbage dumpsters. The quantity was far more than these places could hide, yet still they came, and their numbers seemingly endless.

Any that was cut down was dragged away and possibly replaced, healed, or revived.

There was an uncomfortable itch on his leg, which he scratched.

Their forces had no choice but to retreat every time, with videos of their humiliating defeats spread on the net.

Their illicit businesses had been put to an almost complete stop, and morale was rock bottom. It was a miracle that they hadn't lost any capes, but he had suspicions about whether that was intentional.

He tossed and turned in an attempt to clear his head and get some sleep, trying to ignore the itching. Restless nights had become all too common, and he sometimes jumped at the slightest hint of a mosquito in the air or a cockroach on the ground.

He spared no expense providing insecticide to all his capes and using it liberally everywhere. It was probably not good for his health.

The itch spread to his other leg, and he growled in annoyance. It was just a phantom sensation, he assured himself. There were no bugs in his room. He'd made sure of that after several nights of restlessness.

As if confirming his assurances to himself, his thoughts soon became hazy and he welcomed the peace of incoming sleep.

Then a portal opened beside the bed, and several man-sized bugs came through to drag him away. He remained blissful unconscious throughout.

Stormtiger was staying up late to oversee the shipment of new high quality drugs, which were one of the few black market businesses the E88 could still engage in. The subtle nature of their smuggling and low-key transactions with wealthy clients had managed to escape CRUCIBLE's surveillance for now.

Goods were being smuggled into Brockton Bay as part of Medhall's chemical supplies, then routed to E88 social clubs, delivered to clients in private rooms.

Stormtiger was in an E88 hideout as goods were brought in, keeping a sheet of air around himself so as to prevent bugs from getting to him, even after their hideouts were saturated with insecticide.

But these precautions were proven insufficient when small portals opened across the hideout, dropping off agony bombs.

Then everyone inside was quietly dragged away.

Victor and Othala had just reached the climax of their late night adult activities when their pleasure turned to sheer agony.

Krieg was watching TV when insecticide-resistant bugs swarmed onto him. He put up only a token resistance against the powerful sedatives before succumbing.

Hookwolf was holding a dog fight when Soldier bugs attacked en masse, knockout gas spraying everywhere into the audience. The villain shifted to wolf blade form immediately and shrugged off the effects of both the sedative and the agony bombs, slaughtering his way through the Soldier bugs and regenerating his blades immediately when they were destroyed.

His valiant fight was not to last, however, as combat drones entered the fight and sprayed him down with containment foam.

Hookwolf was hauled off through a portal while CRUCIBLE soldiers rounded up the audience for delivery to the BBPD.

Similar scenes played out across the city as all E88 members fell under attack almost simultaneously.

O O O

Tattletale smirked mischievously at Faultline on the opposite couch. "So you finally need the help of a true Thinker?"

"Don't play coy, Tattletale. Whatever differences we may have had in the past, they don't matter anymore. This is bigger than all of us," said Faultline.

"Maybe. But what's your stake in it? I don't think self-defense is your main motivation here," Tattlesaid said, giving a meaningful look to Grue.

"What you're talking about is a full alliance…preparing for a war. This isn't something we can get involved in lightly. It's not the type of thing our team does. If we're to…consider something like that, I think we need to make sure that we're really on the same side, that we have the same goals," said Grue, speaking with some difficulty. The overwhelming insect repellant in the room was suffocating.

Faultline considered him for a moment.

"Coil hired us to investigate Polychromic. But before we got anything useful, he cancelled the contract. Then he was captured. While I have no affection for the man, I did respect Coil's competence. For him to suddenly cancel the contract suggests that he was compromised long before he was captured. The most likely explanation is that Polychromic silenced him in secret. If so, then we may be the next targets." Faultline then took out a piece of paper with a diagonal Greek omega symbol on it. "Moreover, Coil identified a link to this organization, and that's something we have an interest in."

"I was expecting us to have a much harder time getting you to tell us that," Tattletale said suspiciously.

"Like I said, this is bigger than all of us. I don't have a choice. We have to work together to stand a chance. Already, they've placed the entire city under surveillance and destroyed two gangs in a matter of weeks. Their enforcers are everywhere and the bugs react within minutes to any crime. Even if CRUCIBLE doesn't come for us, we'd be out of business soon, as clients can't risk trying to hire us anymore with the surveillance everywhere. People are scared, Tattletale. So am I. The only way out is to leave the city…but I don't think they'll let us go quietly."

"You're serious. You really think CRUCIBLE is that dangerous," Tattletale said.

"It would take a fool not to realize that."

"I can't argue with that. But I'm not sure what we can do about it. I think they could have gotten us already. I'm pretty sure this bug repellant doesn't actually work on Skitter's modified bugs, you know? Only the regular ones," said Tattletale.

"Labyrinth is blocking the bugs in her zone." Said cape was currently sitting on the couch beside Faultline, apparently not paying any attention to the conversation.

"But we don't have that option. They could have gotten us before we came here, if they wanted to. If we join this alliance, wouldn't we be making ourselves into a target?" Grue said. "For now, CRUCIBLE has limited themselves to responding to actual crimes taking place."

"So you're just going to sit and wait until it's your turn?"

"No, but we can't agree to anything without a concrete plan. Polychromic is even more dangerous than you know," said Grue. He gestured to Tattletale.

"Consider this our own show of goodwill, for telling us that tidbit about Coil hiring you. We were there on that first fight when CRUCIBLE fought Lung. Polychromic knew how that fight was going to go. I'm pretty sure he's a precog. You may not know this, but Coil was a precog too. The strongest one I'd ever heard of. Then Polychromic beat him and somehow took over his whole organization practically overnight. You were right about Coil being compromised long before he was 'officially' captured. That whole Bakuda meeting? It wasn't Coil who showed up. It was a just a ploy to provide a public cover for Coil's organization being subsumed. They couldn't use the mercs in public until Coil was officially out of the picture," said Tattletale.

"And if he's a precog, that means it's not even the bugs we should be worried about. Whatever we decide to do, they'll know before we do it even if there aren't any bugs around. We were taking a big risk just to talk to you," Grue said.

"Then we need a precog of our own. Or a precog blocker."

"Except the whole city has been sealed off. Nobody can get in without CRUCIBLE's permission," said Tattletale.

"The whole city? I thought those were just rumors. I saw the videos of E88 fighting the bugs but to seal off the entire city would mean they must have hundreds of those things."

"That's probably low-balling it. The Teeth tried their luck earlier today when Spree and Animos came. It didn't work out for them. They were met by CRUCIBLE's forces at the border. Since then, both of them have disappeared, probably captured by CRUCIBLE."

"Animos too? That's the one with the power-nullifying roar. How did they defeat him? And how do you know about this?"

"I have some sources with the PRT. Animos' roar doesn't nullify anything Araliac already created, and apparently it doesn't nullify Skitter's bug control either when she's commanding them through a booster bug. I don't think they even noticed his roar did anything. That, or they used Cricket to counter the roar somehow. Officially, Cricket is still missing after she was captured by Coil, but…"

"Booster bug?"

"Oh, that's the name the PRT gave to a hypothetical bug Araliac is thought to have made for her that expands the range of her Master power. It's how she managed to cover the whole city. Her range wasn't that crazy before. With all her new bugs and the huge boost in range, her PRT rating's been upgraded from Master 5 to 10, with potential to be 12 if her range keeps expanding without limit. Impossible to contain, you see. The PRT would probably flip if they realized that CRUCIBLE has a _lot_ more bugs in reserve than the ones garrisoning the city. They've been building up forces somewhere else and have a way to continuously ship in reinforcements."

There was a moment of silence as Faultline's Crew digested the information.

"Hey, sorry if this sounds stupid, but why don't we just leave? I think we have a pretty decent chance against the bugs, with me 'n' Gregor's chemicals. We've got Labyrinth too, and she's pretty damn powerful," said Newter. "If it's just to break out of the city, shouldn't be too hard, right?"

"There's nothing stopping CRUCIBLE from coming after us even after we leave the city," said Faultline. "Though I admit that is becoming a more attractive option by the day."

"Shit! We're under attack!" Tattletale suddenly yelled as she noticed the sound of something metallic dropping on the floor.

The next moment Fautline, Tattletale, Grue, Labyrinth, Bitch, and Spitfire all collapsed screaming.

The small portals which dropped agony bombs closed, then much large portals opened shortly after. Soldier bugs poured through and rushed towards the downed capes. Bitch roared a command to her dogs as she struggled back up. "Hurt!"

Newter and Gregor shrugged off the agony bombs with their Case 53 unique biologies, and dashed to intercept the bugs from reaching their downed teammates.

The room was erupted into an intense melee as the dogs and two Case 53s fought madly against the hordes.

Regent seized control of his teammates' bodies by force and plunged the room into darkness with Grue's power.

That turned out to be a mistake as the bugs were barely affected, while Newter and Gregor both cursed as the bugs overwhelmed them in that moment of disruption.

The Undersiders, under Regent's control, barely took two steps when the bugs reached them and spat globs of sticky liquid onto them, halting their escape.

Bitch's dogs were dead within seconds as the Brute rated Dung Beetle Soldier Bugs attacked with reckless abandon, and the acid sprayers blasted their acid without bothering to account for friendly fire as the bugs were all expendable.

The whole club room morphed into a white room with blood stains on the walls, corpses and skeletons scattered about on hospital beds. The portals disappeared cutting off the tide of bugs.

The darkness was removed and blocked from Labyrinth's zone as flashing strobe lights replaced it.

Terrible screeches and mad laughter could be heard in the distance, and the ground exploded at several points, releasing noxious fumes.

The walls erupted and lava poured in.

Large numbers of bugs were destroyed, but somehow the destruction perfectly missed the capes.

The skeletons suddenly moved as if alive and started to fight the remaining bugs, which had lost their connection to their master and were attacking indiscriminately.

The strobing lights disappeared, replaced by torches on the parts of the walls that weren't broken as the walls shifted to old and decaying stone. The lava coalesced and formed into humanoid monsters roaring their rage.

"Labyrinth, snap out of it!" Newter shouted from his position on the ground, heavily injured and unable to move.

The Shaker 12 kept screaming with wide eyes as if she didn't hear him.

"What the fuck is this horror movie shit?" Regent shouted. He and the rest of the Undersiders were trapped by the sticky goo from the bugs.

"This is the bad place! We've got to snap Labyrinth out of it before it gets _really bad_!" Gregor replied.

"How the hell are we supposed to do that when we can't even move?" Regent asked.

"Fuck!" Newter screamed as the torches blew out amidst a malevolent laughter, that was suddenly much closer than it was before.

The whole area was plunged back into darkness. Then a pair of baleful red eyes appeared above them. One pair turned into two, then ten, then a hundred, and a thousand.

The red eyes seemed to glow in the dark, and the capes found themselves just barely able to see each other again, but the unconscious members of their group were missing.

Tattletale groaned as she recovered from the agony, and blinked her eyes open. Then she shrieked hysterically upon seeing what was around her.

Shadowy tendrils wrapped around the capes and lifted them into the air, even as Labyrinth continued to scream.

The laughter returned while interspersed with "It's TiME fOor YoUr mEDicIne!", the voice repeating like a broken record.

The dark tendrils around each cape grew enormous syringes the size of a child's arm, and stabbed them into the capes over and over, eliciting screams from their victims.

Half a minute later, their screams died down, and the tendrils, eyes, and laughter seemed to retreat, leaving them in darkness again.

"Shit…is it over?" Regent asked.

"…this isn't real…this isn't real…!" Tattletale whimpered.

"It sure as hell feels real!" Newter said with a groan. "I'm pretty sure whatever happens to us here isn't just going to go away when we get out."

"You mean _if_ we get out," Gregor's voice responded in the dark. "It's never been this bad before."

"Guys, hang on for a few more minutes, then I might be able to do something about it with my power," said Regent.

Then Tattletale shrieked again as she felt something slimy wrapping around her limbs.

The darkness receded to reveal that she was still in a dungeon, hanging above a murky, bubbling dark gold pond.

Labyrinth was trapped in some kind of bubble floating in the air.

Everyone else was nowhere to be seen.

Great gelatinous protrusions of flesh grew from the pond. They were protoplasmic self-luminous things of flowing flesh like dark slime.

From the flesh grew formed and unformed temporary eyes whose pupils rotated languidly, searching for the living, staring at her.

"Labyrinth! Wake up! Please! You have to wake up!" Tattletale shouted to the other girl. No response.

The cloudy pond underneath the flesh twisted and formed massive crystalline faces in a mockery of life.

She sank slowly towards the surface, dragged by the fleshy amoeba-like appendages.

"Oh no—no—no! Labyrinth, _why?_ No—please—"

Tattletale's cries were soon reduced to muffled whimpers, chokes, and then silence.

O O O

At the CRUCIBLE Earth M2 comms room, video feeds showed the wall of darkness rapidly expanding out from the Palanquin, a thick veil of miasma obscuring everything within from sight, with the occasional massive tentacle lashing out to destroy nearby buildings, earth-shattering roars resounding throughout Brockton Bay.

"What just happened? I lost the connection with my bugs in there," said Skitter.

" _Dimensional anomaly is interfering with signal transmission. Unable to generate new portals in target area,_ " said Offensive Bias.

"Seems like Labyrinth's work. I didn't know it could create animated beings," Polychromic said.

Araliac's voice transmitted over comms. " _I've finished processing the E88. What's the status with Faultline's Crew and the Undersiders?_ "

"Well, we've run into a bit of a problem. Best if you come over and see for yourself."

A portal opened and Araliac stepped through.

"…what _is_ that?"

"Something we can't keep. But let's see what we can do about it first. Bias, deploy the dimensional flattening bombs with the planet-side missile system."

" _6 Series B Dimensional Flattener warheads prepared. T-15 to launch_."

Shortly after, hypersonic missiles were launched from the M2 base's silos through portals which opened in the Earth Bet stratosphere, within range of shard powers, and continued towards Brockton Bay.

When contact was made with Labyrinth's zone, the area was forced back to normal— _almost_. The Palanquin was wrecked with a mishmash of stone rubble, active fires, and hospital beds that weren't supposed to be there. Giant insect body parts and various fluids were strewn all over the wreckage. Faultline's Crew and the Undersiders were lying unconscious among the ruins.

"So Bakuda's anti-portaling bombs also work on powers like Labyrinth's. Good. Close the timeline and report back to me Calvert."

Back in the real world, Thomas Calvert reported the proceedings to the CRUCIBLE leaders, and they revised the planned operation to capture Faultline's Crew and the Undersiders before trying again.

O O O


	54. Interlude 5-b (Cauldron)

**Interlude 5.b (Cauldron)**

"That concludes my report."

The face of Director Emily Piggot was stoic, her voice tightly controlled against a hidden tension. Unusually different from her previous experiences with the woman.

To Rebecca's powers of perception, it was that the Director was feeling distinctly uncomfortable, and the source of that distress seemed to be Rebecca herself.

What could be the cause? Her mind ran through the possibilities and identified nothing from her end. The last report she'd heard was only a few days ago, and there was nothing out of the ordinary then.

The only possible answer had to be found within a catalyst on Piggot's side. Perhaps something to do with these new heroes that had defeated the Dragon of Kyushu.

It was something she had to look into.

The stakes were too high for her to risk overlooking any sort of lead, no matter how insignificant it may seem. If her identity was exposed, the results would be catastrophic for the world.

O O O

"…and the Simurgh has been moving strangely. We haven't identified the why yet, but there's definitely something different. It's spending more time in the lower atmosphere above North America," said Alexandria.

"The other Endbringers?" Eidolon asked.

"Nothing notable there. By the schedule, the next attack will happen next month in May."

"Have we made any progress on figuring out where they might target next?" Legend asked.

"We have a list of high potential cities. Too many to be useful. There are a couple of capes that are developing software to provide a slight advance warning that seems promising," Alexandria said.

"In the Protectorate?" Legend asked, with a look of surprise.

"It's not an official project. Dragon and Armsmaster are working on it in secret."

"Oh, I see," Legend said with a look of understanding. "Is that all, then?"

"There's one more thing," said Alexandria. It was time to discuss her mounting concerns over the leadership at the PRT ENE. The evidence was already clear.

"There is a strong chance that the PRT Director of ENE and Armsmaster have acquired knowledge, or at least suspicions, of something that would be unfavorable to us."

Everyone present gave her their full attention.

"We've been compromised? How?" Eidolon asked.

The Doctor's glance toward her silent assistant did not go unnoticed by Alexandria. Did they know already? Why hadn't Contessa done something about it then?

Whatever the case, they weren't going to be the ones to answer Eidolon's question. Not with Legend around, she supposed.

"I wouldn't say _compromised_ quite yet. On April 11th, Director Piggot had a meeting with the new heroes known as Polychromic, Araliac, and Skitter. Records of that meeting have been tampered with, I believe with the assistance of Dragon. Since then, I've kept a closer eye on them, and Piggot and Armsmaster have been making certain dangerous lines of inquiry, while increasing security and actively hiding information from me. My close monitoring of them is how I knew about the Endbringer prediction software they are developing. It's still unclear how much they know."

The words brought the group to a momentary silence.

"If Dragon is involved…" Eidolon said.

"Are her restrictions failing?" Legend asked.

"I believe the source of the change was not Dragon, but the new hero known as Polychromic. The threat rating assigned to Polychromic was Thinker 6, possible 9, and there are records that Polychromic claimed to have highly sensitive information. Furthermore, the hero known as Araliac is in fact Panacea, who had run away from home after a suspected meeting between herself and Polychromic in civilian identity."

"I think I heard about them," said Legend. "They're the ones who defeated Lung, right? And you say Araliac is Panacea the miracle healer?"

"Yes. But we know that Panacea's much more than that. She would be an S-class threat if she used her full powers."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves and label anyone an S-class threat yet. They are heroes, at least for now, and we should hope it stays that way. The Protectorate would benefit greatly from having such powerful heroes added to our ranks."

"They refused to join the Protectorate and have declared their intention to establish an independent team."

"Independent or not, they aren't exactly villains yet."

"No, they're not. I'm only assessing their capabilities and stating the current situation. It's a cause for concern, and it concerns all of us, so I thought it best to inform you all. I will continue to monitor and try to defuse the situation peacefully. They may just be overly paranoid."

Legend nodded at her explanation. "That's fine. I just don't want us to make any wrong assumptions. It's easy to get caught up in pre-conceptions if you use the wrong terminology."

"I understand, Legend," she said, giving him a reassuring smile. "That's all for now then. You can go home now. Let's move on to our finances."

"We've cumulatively recovered 98% of our investment losses attributable to the Canberra attack, of which 34% are still unrealized gains. Of particular significance: 67 out of 82 outstanding insurance lawsuits regarding the voiding of policies of the persons legally unpersoned and properties within quarantined territory have been settled, resulting in one-time loss reserve adjustments representing $6 billion net booked in exposure-weighted terms across all insurers in our portfolio. Our strategy to manipulate insurance programs to mitigate damage to Cauldron influence and assets from Endbringer attacks is working well. We've closed on 36 high potential clients and 123 regular clients since…" the Number Man started reporting.

Legend smiled back and excused himself.

Once he left, the Number Man stopped, and they all looked at each other.

"Whether they're heroes or not, I believe Alexandria has good cause for concern. If they find out too much, what should we do? Bring them in, or…" Eidolon trailed off, looking at the woman in the suit.

The Doctor turned to Contessa and nodded. Suddenly the normally silent woman spoke up.

"The Paths changed on April 3rd. Before then, the man known as Polychromic was hidden to the Paths. The Paths adjusted, and he is now part of them, but the Paths around him are murky, uncertain. He possesses knowledge of Cauldron and many other secrets, but silencing him is not a step in the Paths to protect Cauldron's secrets."

Alexandria held down her shock. The words spoken by Contessa implied that Polychromic had been a complete blindspot of sorts to the woman's power. Contessa was their ace and their most powerful asset, even above Eidolon, in many ways, if not for her few blindspots of Scion, Eidolon, and the Endbringers. And now she was saying that another one had appeared, one with knowledge of their organization? One that Contessa might not be assured victory against, if he proved to be a threat.

"Does this mean you don't think we should do anything about him?" Alexandria asked the Doctor.

"It would be dangerous to move carelessly. He was a total blindspot for Contessa before, it's possible that he allowed himself to be seen on purpose. Right now he doesn't seem to be an immediate threat to our plans, so it's best to observe some more," the Doctor said.

"What about Piggot, Armsmaster, and Dragon?" Alexandria pressed.

"The Path does not require them to be silenced either. They do not know enough, and will not spread their knowledge," Contessa said.

"I see."

Then she would continue to observe.

O O O

"This is an outrage! They are _flaunting_ their access to weapons of mass destruction, illegally holding cape captives, and have the audacity to act like they're the heroes!" Director Tagg said heatedly. "We can't possibly let them get away with this!"

Most of the directors' faces on screen looked deeply concerned, but none were as angry as Tagg. Piggot looked as stoic as ever, her face a near blank.

"Nevertheless, they are registered heroes with significant public support right now. Should we take any aggressive stances, the PR backlash would be difficult to manage," said Piggot.

"Then you need to bring them in line," Tagg said.

"With what? It's obvious from Director Piggot's reports that they knew exactly what they were doing. This is not a case of new heroes unfamiliar with the protocol, this is a case of powerful capes deliberately leveraging PR to break regulations and avoid the consequences," said Director Armstrong.

"And what will happen if other capes start taking this as an example to follow? That if you're powerful enough, and have enough public support, you can ignore the law? This is a threat to the very existence of the PRT and Protectorate. If the government is seen as being unable to keep control over powerful hero groups, the system itself will collapse. Not to mention that this 'CRUCIBLE' could turn villain at any time, and what then? Shall we let them grow until it's too late to stop them?"

While Tagg's attitude was not making him any allies, his logic was one that most of the Directors could understand, and certainly Rebecca had the same concerns.

The conference of PRT Directors shared a moment of silence.

"We could officially authorize their possession and custody, on a temporary basis," said Director Heathrow.

"What?" Tagg looked stunned.

"That way, it will appear as if they are working under PRT oversight, while we look for better ways to keep them in line," Director Heathrow suggested. "They'll make a mistake somewhere down the line, and we'll capitalize on it to shift public sentiment in our favor. We have to wait until people calm down and start thinking about the implications rather than their achievements, that's when we make our demands."

"That's risky," said Director Armstrong.

"But what else can we do? If we take a heavy hand right now, we won't have public support behind us. Nor do we want to get in a fight with CRUCIBLE. As annoying as they are, they're still heroes and we need all the heroes we can get. If we say that the PRT is authorizing them to secure the weapons and villains on a trial basis, we can draw out the people that would be opposed to it, then slowly build up support to revoke the authorization. And let's not forget, despite these supposed 'weapons of mass destruction', we deal with threats just as dangerous all the time. So what if they break a few rules? When they fall, as independent hero teams always do, the PRT will pick up the pieces and it will be a cautionary tale for future ambitious independent-minded heroes not to scorn the PRT."

"I can support this plan," Piggot said.

"It's not too bad, all things considered. I will support this," said Armstrong.

A round of nods and agreement later, and Rebecca affirmed the decision. "Very well. We'll do as you suggest Director Heathrow. Director Piggot, you can prepare the relevant announcements and documents."

O O O

"There's no need to panic," said the Doctor. "In fact, this could work in our favor."

"How?" Eidolon demanded. "Crucible is proving to be even more dangerous than we thought, and clearly they don't think we're on the same side. Even their name mocks us."

"Not necessarily. They haven't done anything to explicitly to disrupt our plans," Alexandria said.

"They've interfered with Terminus, haven't they? Wasn't that a critical part of our plans?"

"Rather than interfering, it would be more accurate to say that they took over the Terminus project. Coil was never vital, merely the best and most easily controlled candidate as our client with a suitable power," said the Doctor. "They have proven themselves rather more effective, and appealing to the masses, which ultimately is what we wanted to achieve."

"And how does killing and breaking people out of the Birdcage work in our favor? Without the assurance that the Birdcage provides, the public would push for executions. We'd be losing a huge number of powerful assets in the final fight," said Eidolon.

"So it stays a secret, except among the top brass. The loss of a Trump as useful as Teacher is regrettable, but this also means that Cauldron can start removing some Birdcage inmates for our own purposes now that there's been a precedent. It gives us a lot of time to mold them to our objectives, instead of being forced to rely on their cooperation when the time comes," the Doctor explained patiently.

"You agree with this?" Eidolon directed towards Alexandria.

She hesitated only for a moment before nodding. "There's some evidence to suggest that they may be working towards the same goals as we are, and my investigations suggest that they revealed far less about Cauldron to Piggot and Armsmaster than I initially suspected. However, I think we need to establish communications with them soon. As it stands, they are too much of a wildcard that we have no leverage over, especially if Contessa can't be certain her Paths are accurate for them."

"I want to agree with you, Alexandria, but the Simurgh's latest activities have me worried. A few hours before the Birdcage break-in, it started singing at a very low, barely audible frequency from her position in the atmosphere, which has never been observed before. In the past the Simurgh has interfered when it seemed that we were on the verge of a great breakthrough…I fear that direct cooperation with CRUCIBLE would invite her attention, if it hasn't already," the Doctor said.

The conversation came to a halt when a portal opened to reveal Legend finally arriving.

The group instantly controlled their expressions.

"Hi. I just finished reading the report from Dragon. So do we have any idea who was behind it, and why?"

"Unfortunately, we don't know much. We don't know we could even have the power to do such a thing, let alone suspects. The Birdcage was thought to be essentially impenetrable. As for the why, it could have been a coordinated assassination of Teacher, or Canary might have been taken for her powers."

"My powers haven't given me anything useful either. All I've found out is that whoever it was can do it again."

"That's…not much," said Legend with a disappointed look.

"Yes _, I realize that_ ," growled Eidolon, acting appropriately frustrated.

O O O

"What's going on?" asked Eidolon.

The Doctor looked haggard, and her dark skin was unusually pale. She had suddenly called for an emergency meeting, even though these days she usually left the Triumvirate to their own devices until a regular meeting, or Alexandria initiated the call.

"We have a lot less time than we thought. There could be as little as two years until the end of the world scenario," said Doctor Mother.

"Only two years?" Eidolon asked, his face solemn. "Our earliest estimates put it at least 23 years away, based on Endbringer activity. Unless…Scion? What's changed?"

"It's not that anything in particular has changed, but that we've found a precog who could give a more accurate prediction," said the Number Man as he came through a side door to the conference room. Behind him was a young girl with straight, dark brown hair in a Greek style dress and half mask.

"This is Oracle, the one who made the prediction. It's quite detailed," said the Number Man.

"I recognize her," Alexandria said, closely observing the girl. The mask was only a minor obstruction to her. "Dinah Alcott, niece of the Mayor of Brockton Bay? When did you get her?"

"That's correct. Contessa has been paying more attention to Brockton Bay in order to better model Polychromic. She found Oracle in the process. We've replaced her with a believable clone that will die of natural causes shortly." said the Number Man.

At the last part, Alexandria and Eidolon both gave sharp looks to the Doctor.

"We didn't kidnap her, if that's what you're worried about. When Contessa found her, she came willingly. Quite eager to help too."

The Doctor's explanation both relieved and unnerved Eidolon. He wanted to save lives, that's all he ever wanted. He knew what they were up against, and the _necessity_ of everything they'd done.

In the beginning, he hadn't known the whole truth, but there was a point when his powers told him what the Doctor and Alexandria had kept from him.

So he understood why they were getting a mere child involved in their ugly business, and understood how that child might have felt in the face of a threat such as the end of the world.

But so too was unnerved, because he knew what was left unspoken. That Contessa probably persuaded her the same way she persuaded Eidolon himself when he learned the truth about Cauldron's less savoury projects. Contessa rarely spoke in their meetings, allowing the Doctor to speak instead, but he knew that when she stayed silent, she was holding back. An answer to every dilemma, from the most trivial to the most major.

Even he, a blindspot, was subject to an _Eidolon-like_ model, and with her path to victory she could convince anyone of almost anything. Was it really willing if one could be persuaded to do anything she wanted?

"I…want to help. Please. I want to be here. Nobody believes me at home, but I have to do something. I _know_ I can help," the girl said in a strong voice.

Alexandria nodded. "The end of the world, then? How does it happen?"

"A man with a knife. He's the one who makes everyone die. I don't know how. But if he's alive, something happens in two years, or eight, or some time in between, and everyone dies. Everyone dies anyways but if that something happens, they die really fast, and in a year almost everyone is dead," the girl explained.

The Number Man cut in. "What we've been able to piece together is that Jack Slash is the catalyst, and if he stays alive there's a 95% chance that the end of the world event happens about two years from now."

"So we need to eliminate Jack Slash?" Eidolon asked.

"No, not quite. There's an exceedingly good chance that we would have only sixty-six to twenty-five percent of the forces available if we waited ten years."

"Fourteen years from now is the breaking point," Dinah said.

"Fifty-three to two percent of the forces available, then," Number Man clarified. "Counterintuitively, the two-year scenario is actually the best case. For having the strongest force and therefore the highest chances of victory."

"We knew this was coming sooner or later and that the results wouldn't be good for humanity. What Oracle has provided us with is a clearer picture of the when, and more importantly, the _how_. These new predictions have decimated our projected timelines, but we now have confirmation that it _can_ be survived, at least. It won't end with the Entity simply obliterating all Earths in one devastating strike. Instead, there will be vast swatches of destruction, and civilization may survive in various small pockets across a number of realities," said the Doctor.

"Thus confirming the importance of the Terminus," said Alexandria.

"Correct. In light of this new information, there's no time to prepare or pursue anything further. We can only continue with what we already have."

"In that regard, it seems that leaving CRUCIBLE alone was the right choice. They've managed to complete Terminus earlier than even our most optimistic scenarios," said Alexandria.

The Doctor nodded. "So now we can advance the Cockroach and Exodus plans. Then the question is, how much should we involve the Protectorate?"

Alexandria shook her head. "The Protectorate is proving to be a failure on that front. Recent events haven't given me much hope. I would include them in Cockroach, and only fully segregated, but not Exodus, considering the superior results from Terminus. Our resources would be better spent replicating CRUCIBLE's success for Exodus."

There was a loud gasp from Oracle.

"The—the numbers are changing! I don't understand—ah…it hurts!" The girl clutched her head with both hands.

Doctor Mother looked disturbed and turned to Contessa.

"Jack Slash was killed by a missile fired through a portal connecting to space," said Contessa.

O O O

A/N: We're almost reaching the end of the Worm segment, and will soon be moving on the start of the multiverse portion of the story.

FerunaLutelou: Amy's probably not making up with her family. MC won't like it...though maybe she will once if he leaves Worm without her. Who knows what might happen when he's not around to control things.

superpierce: Calvert is actually under much more extensive brainwashing, not just Canary. Additional details will be provided once we get back to MC's POV.

victorsan12345: Technically, he isn't a precog, but since Tattletale's not going to explain the whole nuance behind it, it's sufficient as a simplification. He does function very similarly to precogs and interferes with them.


	55. Interlude 5-c (Contessa)

**Interlude 5.c (Contessa)**

 _I want to know why Oracle's numbers have changed._

No steps were needed. The knowledge came into her mind easily. A man with a knife and a dangerous smile, leading a group of notorious villains. A portal opened behind him to reveal the inky darkness of space for a fraction of a second before a missile came hurtling through.

When Jack Slash was hit, his body was disintegrated into dust, leaving nothing but a crater on the pavement.

The other members of the Slaughterhouse Nine looked dumbly at the results. There had been no opportunity to defend. One moment he was there and the next he was gone.

 _I want to know who killed him._

— _Unknown. Likely candidates: CRUCIBLE, Scion, Simurgh, group with anti-Thinker Trump and Tinkers._

 _I want to know where the missile came from._

The Path showed her the portal again. Bewildered, she tried to ask another way.

 _I want to know where the other side of the portal is._

An image of Earth came into her mind, and a boundary at the atmosphere was delineated. Beyond the boundary, everything was foggy. The Path was telling her that the missile came from outside the area where her power worked.

Unable to discover more, Contessa answered Doctor Mother with what she knew. "Jack Slash was killed by a missile fired through a portal that connected to space."

"Outside of the range of the Agents' powers, then. So they built it after all," the Doctor noted.

"How is that possible? They have interplanetary space weapons?" Alexandria asked.

"No. They only need portals and a self-propelling missile with an automated guiding system that uses a flight path going into and returning from space outside the limit. Doormaker's range is unfortunately limited to the Earth, but we could do something similar with Professor Haywire's portal generators. I've had the idea for a while, but there was simply never a need for it," said Doctor Mother. "The primary purpose of such a system would be to defeat precognition. The only precog that might warrant its use would be the Simurgh, but we would still need a way to actually destroy her, otherwise we would simply be revealing our hand, not to mention she would likely stop us from building it."

Without prompting, Contessa already asked her Path to verify Doctor Mother's hypothesis.

 _I want to know whether CRUCIBLE has built a missile system like that._

— _99.99%_

That was highly unusual. Her power was not supposed to give percentage answers regarding information about the present. Or at all, really. It meant there was uncertainty, but why was the probability so high?

 _I want to know if CRUCIBLE has the ability to build a missile system like that._

The Path answered. Two week ago, CRUCIBLE built a portal generating device whose range extended to the moon. The copy of Dragon they made had access to the technical schematics from the US military and a number of Tinker designs, any of which could serve the same functions. They could build a self-guided missile system, in conjunction with the portal generator.

"And you already knew CRUCIBLE could do this," said Alexandria.

"I suspected they could build it, but it's strange. I would have expected the Simurgh to stop something like that before they finished it." The Doctor glanced at Contessa. She wanted to ask Contessa to try and figure out why.

The Simurgh was a blindspot. Asking for information about it was difficult, and had to be done in a roundabout way.

But Contessa already had an inkling of what was going on. Although she couldn't possibly know the motivations of the Simurgh, she could find out why the Simurgh _couldn't_ do it.

She recalled the model of the Simurgh she had in her mind. An indestructible being with unlimited precognition and postcognition with a range assumed to be identical to her own Path's range, plus telekinesis, the ability to copy Tinker powers, and a dreadful singing voice.

 _I want to know if this hypothetical being S could have stopped CRUCIBLE from building the portal generator whose range extends beyond the range of precognitive powers, if it wanted to._

— _Probably not_

Not even a numerical estimate this time?

 _I want to understand why S could or couldn't, the calculation basis of the last Path._

She saw Leet working on the Tinkertech device that would generate portals. The probability of success was partially based on Leet's future behavior.

However, if the device worked, Leet's behavior would become unpredictable shortly after, because Polychromic would move him outside of the range of the precognitive powers using that device.

Because that piece of the input was unreliable, Leet's agent could not make the decision based on the algorithm it previously applied for Leet's power mechanics. It had to make a discretionary decision, and Agents' discretionary decisions were blindspots to the Path, and most likely to the hypothetical being as well.

The chain of information did not stop there.

The hypothetical being would see as much as the Path did, and knowing that the device was a critical turning point, if it wanted to stop CRUCIBLE it could try to stop Leet due to the risk of the device working.

However, during the creation of the Tinkertech, at random times, something else was already opening portals which were immune to precognition.

Each time, Polychromic came through and discussed Leet's progress, in an inexplicable sudden shift from Polychromic's previously predicted behavior.

The hypothetical being could not use its powers to locate or destroy whatever was creating those portals, and could not determine if those portals were already capable of reaching beyond the range of precognitive powers.

Although the answer the Path provided was long-winded, Contessa grasped it within a few seconds.

Yet she needed more. If the Simurgh couldn't stop the portal device from being built, why couldn't it at least try to stop the missile system from being built? There was no way to construct such advanced weapons without having access to infrastructure. If they had such infrastructure outside of the precognition range, they must have built it at some point, which means they must have left a trail of evidence, materials and equipment being moved through portals within postcognition range, which her Path could find.

 _I want to know whether CRUCIBLE engaged in activities which might lead to them building technological infrastructure necessary for constructing the missile system outside of the Path's perception, and if so, why could S not stop those activities?_

She had expected to learn about how CRUCIBLE had moved various materials and equipment over time through portals to blind space.

Instead, she saw Polychromic buying cryogenic tech from Glace of Toybox.

Then she saw Canary killing Teacher in the Birdcage. When Canary moved through a portal to escape, leaving Teacher's body behind, Polychromic had taken the body before the room was blown up and stashed it away before chasing after Canary to catch her from falling.

Canary was put to sleep, then Polychromic retrieved Teacher's body and put it into stasis using cryogenic tech before returning to Canary.

Then she saw Cranial getting captured and Mastered by CRUCIBLE. Cranial's tech was used to extract memories from Teacher's preserved brain. Then Araliac cloned Teacher, and Cranial's tech was used again to cause the clone to trigger with the original's memories.

Triggers were blindspots to the Path's precognition, but not postcognition, and the same was assumed for the hypothetical being, which is probably why it failed to stop them.

Following the trigger, the clone Teacher was Mastered into creating a large number of Tinkers, who worked together to create a device that could block entire planets from Agent perception.

They immediately deployed it, cutting off a world from the Path's perception, a world which already had sufficient infrastructure to build the missile system.

 _Path: make a device that can block off an area from Agent perceptions, similar to the one Teacher's Tinkers made_ , Contessa queried.

The Path revealed the steps required. She would need to collect a number of Tinkers and make them work together, but it was doable. Taking full control of Dragon would cut down on the number of steps significantly. Gaining Dragon's voluntary loyalty and releasing her would cut down even more, but that would disrupt other Paths for protecting Cauldron.

Building the device could be troubling for herself, reducing the effectiveness of her Path, making her vulnerable, the Path warned. She had asked the Path previously to protect her, and it was doing so now by informing her of the potential consequences.

But Contessa had never been selfish.

If she had to sacrifice a bit of her own safety net for the greater good, she would do it without hesitation. The device would increase the chances of success for the Cockroach project, and create zones safe from the Simurgh.

If the Path's effectiveness is reduced, there might be many people she could not save, the Path warned again. She would save sealed worlds from things like S, but she would longer be able to save them from other things in the future.

Even so, she reaffirmed. When she went to fight the godling alone, it was with the understanding that she couldn't save everyone. Two thousand one hundred and seventy four steps to explain things to her uncle, save her people, and find the god-beast. But she could not do all that and handle every other essential crisis on the way.

It was a choice between stopping the monster or helping the people she grew up with to survive the chaos. She had chosen then, and she would choose again, to save as many as she could.

Once more, the Path warned her. If she obtained the device and gave it to her colleagues, they could use it against her.

Would they do it? Yes. They would.

Even so, she believed in the Path. It would see her to victory even if there were things it could not tell her because of the godling's commands.

Her life and freedom were not a necessary part of the definition of victory.

But, if there was a way to protect the Path, then she would prefer that.

 _Path: protect the Paths from that kind of device._

Almost eagerly, the Path responded.

112 steps to find Tinkers to build her own blocking device to protect herself from an attack such as the one suffered by Jack Slash.

37 steps to create counter-devices to disrupt enemy blocking devices and break through to sealed areas by force.

32 steps to add backdoors and failsafes for herself on those devices.

98 steps to extend the range of her power to its maximum strength at moon's orbit and harvest the energy required to sustain the higher level of computation demanded.

233 steps to eliminate every Tinker who could make such devices after she acquired what she needed from them.

726 steps to deal with her colleagues who would use Oracle to find and protect these Tinkers if Contessa told them about but refused to help them obtain such devices, then take over Cauldron to keep her previous Paths intact.

84 steps to break into the worlds sealed by CRUCIBLE so that her Path could give her more steps to follow.

There was no hint on her outward expression that she had just seen the exact way to force her colleagues into submitting to her will.

She was not planning to follow that particular Path, but just in case, she decided that it would be best to stay quiet in the background as the meeting continued. She could always tell them what she had learned about CRUCIBLE and the Simurgh later.

When there was no response forthcoming from Contessa, the Doctor moved on with her speculations.

"I suppose the Simurgh's intentions are as opaque as ever. Unless the range of its precognition is actually much farther than other known precognitive powers, and all this is still part of her plans. Could she have wanted Jack Slash to die?"

"If we go by the hypothesis that the Endbringers have some purpose and they want to continue with their own pattern of destruction instead of allowing the world to end in just two years, then Jack's death would align with their agenda," said Alexandria.

"Either way, we have to make adjustments. His death pushes the end of the world scenario to fifteen years away at least, which is past the breaking point. We would have only have forty-four to half a percent of our forces available. The plan to fight Scion directly with a parahuman army would be rendered obsolete. Either we somehow start the fight ourselves before that, or we shift all resources toward Cockroach and Exodus," said the Number Man.

He turned to look at the Doctor. "We may even need to consider the Dominatus contingency to speed up your other project."

An angry beeping sound interrupted.

Alexandria took out her PRT phone that was the source of the noise.

"An A-class threat in Boston." She started to send a few texts. "Carry on," she told her colleagues.

"We can wait, Alexandria," said the Doctor.

The Number Man took the opportunity to soothe Oracle's headache with a painkiller.

"Before we continue discussing our long-term plans, shouldn't we decide what to do about the Nine, now that Jack is dead? In particular, we should do something about the Siberian and Bonesaw," said Eidolon.

"If we stop Manton, we would have difficulties with keeping Legend suspicions' at bay on the Nemesis project," said Doctor Mother.

"Is that necessary, still? If we don't expect the Protectorate to hold up, then we don't need to get more of our people in, in which case we won't need them to have nemeses to fight."

"It's worth considering. But don't forget, Mannequin is a Simurgh bomb. It would be dangerous to simply bring any of the Nine under our direct control, with their prolonged exposure."

Alexandria spoke up again. "I'm sorry, we'll have to cut this meeting short. The A-class threat has just been raised to S. Speculated baby Endbringer. Armstrong is requesting emergency reinforcements."

"A baby Endbringer? What's going on?" Eidolon asked.

"The designation is Echidna. A giant monster cape that's been mass cloning other capes on contact. It's already destroyed two city blocks. We have to contain this immediately. Civilian casualties are already estimated close to a thousand."

"I'll go, then," said Eidolon.

"That could be dangerous. If it clones _you_ …"

Another blaring alarm went off, this time both Alexandria and Eidolon's PRT phones were ringing.

"That's the Endbringer alarm?" Doctor Mother recognized it immediately. "They sounded it for Echidna?"

Alexandria's face uncharacteristically went pale.

"No. The Simurgh is also descending towards Boston."

O O O

A/N: There is only one more chapter left for the Worm segment that will be posted next week. In the meantime, the first chapter of the sequel is already up, and it's a new story called Any Means Necessary: Rising. Find it on my profile. It's also a quest that's running on Sufficient Velocity if you want to participate in the decision making.


	56. Convolution 5-e

**Convolution 5.e**

After Cranial was Mastered by Amelia, my belief that Cranial was massively holding back her true capabilities was vindicated.

As a brain and memory Tinker, her ability to brainwash people was extremely impressive.

The major advantage Amelia's power had over Cranial was that Amelia's power tended to circumvent most forms of Master resistance, and worked even other human Masters or Master victims.

The advantage that Paige's power had was that if it worked, it would temporarily override long-term forms of Mastering, like Amelia's and Cranial's, but took a lot more work to permanently Master someone with it.

Cranial held the advantage in precision, subtlety, and scope of possible effects. People's minds could be utterly wiped clean, or fully rewritten using her tech, even though that process took several hours per person. Fortunately Offensive Bias could operate her tech simultaneously on multiple people.

Commands, rules, and behaviors could be built into the core psyche of a person, making victims' brainwashing impossible to reverse, and also resistant to other Masters.

That said, it wasn't something Cranial was capable of before we captured her, or else she probably would have been far more dangerous and powerful, instead of being a minor Tinker in Toybox.

She only unlocked the truly advanced capabilities after we gave her the chance to study Amelia's and Paige's powers at work, and in turn, she helped them refine their own power use.

Together, the three of them also created a way to project Canary's power through recordings, but it had to be done with special hardware devices built by Cranial, and a way to use Canary's active power to reinforcement the long-term Master effect from Cranial's tech.

Armed with these powerful new means, I released Teacher's corpse from cryo, then revived Teacher via cloning, retriggered via memory transfer, and had these three Master him thoroughly. The previous sixteen prisoners I captured from the E88 were given to him as students, with his Trump-Master power effect also studied by Cranial, Amelia, and Paige, and then his students re-Mastered to be loyal to CRUCIBLE in a hierarchy with myself at the top, followed by Amelia and Taylor, then Offensive Bias and Paige, and so on, instead of just Teacher.

Four powerful human Masters working together would be more than sufficient to brainwash anyone regardless of their resistances, though I still didn't plan to use Teacher's power on any high value capes as a safety precaution.

And so CRUCIBLE was reorganized to strengthen loyalty and morale.

Coil, Bakuda, and Cricket fell under my control shortly afterward, with the highest level of Mastery. Of course I didn't forget to make some additional secret adjustments to Coil to make him believe that he was in fact the one who set Shadow Stalker on Taylor's dad.

That was followed by Uber, Leet, Chariot who were folded into the organization proper, and every member of CRUCIBLE that was formerly a villain, such as Coil's mercs. They were voluntarily working for us, but with their previous leanings, it was a necessary precaution to ensure they were genuinely loyal and properly dedicated to CRUCIBLE. They only received minor attitude adjustments as part of a CRUCIBLE self-improvement training course instead of the full Mastering, and then their loyalty was confirmed in discarded timelines.

At the same time, Teacher's students had been put to work together with Offensive Bias and my other Tinkers on building the device he canonically used to seal off a reality from outside access.

When the device was turned on and proved to work, I was immensely pleased.

It was a game-changer, one that could secure entire worlds under my control.

The moon base was nice, but the moon was a desolate place without resources.

It wasn't foolproof, nothing ever was, but being able to seal off whole Earths from Thinker perception was an enormous advantage.

It was even better than I had expected. All I remembered from the canon was that Teacher made a device that sealed off a reality from entry. If that was all it did, there would potentially be ways for other Tinkers and powers to break in.

But no, his Tinkers couldn't make anything that sealed the physical Wormvoid from entry. They actually created something that sealed _perception_.

This was better because among the myriad of worlds out there, how was anyone supposed to find where I had my operations set up?

If they couldn't perceive it, they would never find me. I hoped that it also worked against the Clairvoyant, Path to Victory, and the Simurgh. I didn't have any way to verify if it did, but the fact that even Coil's power failed against it was a positive sign.

It was interesting, the results of that experiment. If Coil was in an unblocked area, his power completely ignored anything to do with the blocked area. It was like the power treated the blocked area as if it were outer space.

However, there was one important difference. Other capes' powers still worked normally, and some secondary perception powers still worked. For example, Amelia's ability to read biology still worked normally, so did Paige's secondary Thinker power that allowed her to read emotions when she was singing to Master people. Taylor couldn't see out of any bugs within the blocked area, but she could still receive the senses of her bugs that were outside of the zone even if she herself was inside it.

I should note that our own portals still worked regardless, because unlike Doormaker we didn't rely on Clairvoyant's senses, but instead used Offensive Bias's coordinate calculations, and the blocking effect didn't do anything to normal physical signals like those using the electromagnetic spectrum, and of course it didn't block Agate's Waypoint beacons for her portals.

Once I had the device, I had Offensive Bias reverse engineer it, and further ordered the Teacher students to produce a mobile version I could use to protect myself if I ever left the zone. Many more such devices were produced, and installed in all of our worlds.

But that was not the only benefit from having Teacher under control.

Thanks to Cranial and Amelia, Teacher's students were less mentally impaired than they otherwise would have been if they received more powerful powers.

That work experimenting on the brain, with assistance from the Thinkers of the group, and Cranial's own tech, produced upgrades to the brain that were proven safe for me to take.

I was now even smarter than I was before, and extremely resistant to most Master effects. Still not smart enough to learn Agate's Parallel Processing and Acceleration spells, but enough to noticeably speed up my learning everything else.

It also resulted in additional upgrades to the Bionanite Swarm and helped Amelia create the complete living symbiotic armour organism that could also be thought-controlled via the Bionanite Swarm.

It was at that point that I decided we were ready to seize full control of Brockton Bay.

Heroes and innocent people, I was going to leave alone for the most part. CRUCIBLE was still nominally a hero organization, and I might have a hard time convincing Amelia or Taylor to go after the innocent. For the same reason, I didn't capture the rest of Toybox. Although they were known to trade with criminals on the black market, that wasn't much of a crime. Cranial was an exception because we had proven after capturing her that she brainwashed some of her innocent clients with her tech. Otherwise I might have had to let her go after getting Offensive Bias to reverse engineer her tech, instead of Mastering her outright.

But actual villains were all fair game, and we would start with Brockton Bay.

Conveniently the Teeth tried to invade Brockton Bay, sending Animos and Spree to set up shop here. We noticed them long before we actually assaulted them, then used Coil to find the best way to handle them. Spree's ability to mass clone himself was meaningless in the face of the overwhelming numbers Taylor could bring to bear, but Animos was a Changer-Trump with a power-nullifying roar that was only slightly more difficult to handle.

Initially, his roar negated Taylor's control over all bugs that heard it, even though they continued the last command. Without coordination, however, they were much less effective. After a few discarded timelines, we discovered that Cricket could hard-counter his roar. Then Amelia made a new bug that generated soundwaves at the same frequency Cricket used to counter the roar, and sent that one instead in the final timeline we kept.

After that, we captured the rest of the Empire 88 without much trouble by hitting them at night in their homes. They were Mastered then quietly returned to act as our secret agents, without alarming anyone of a large number of missing persons.

Capturing Faultline's Crew and the Undersiders was more difficult if we wanted to operation to stay secret, particularly when both were gathered together at the Palanquin.

The main problem was Labyrinth, whose power could counter our most devastating tactics. She could shut down portals, move into a non-targetable 'in-between' space, shift bugs or other things out, and couldn't hear Canary's song when she didn't have a high degree of lucidity.

Bakuda had developed a Dimensional Flattening bomb that could force an area's portals to close which also worked on Labyrinth's interdimensional manipulation effects, but the downside of using that was that we couldn't portal in either during the period when the Wormvoid in that area was inaccessible.

That period was less than a minute, after which Labyrinth's powers would come back in full force.

Most other powers still worked, so the bomb didn't shut down all uses of the Wormvoid, but we only had one minute to invade from outside the Palanquin and subdue them all.

But more difficult did not mean they had any real chance of defending against us. Repeated uses of Coil's timelines showed Labyrinth's weaknesses and we inevitably captured them all.

The days after that passed by quickly as I continued to make my preparations to leave, training Amelia, Taylor, and Paige to take over, and researching powers with the cooperation of all the capes now under my control.

Even so, I never found out where mana was coming from, when traces of it were detected upon certain powers' uses. It was most likely something I would only figure out if I had access to the physical shards themselves.

Taylor had taken the news of my impending departure much better than Amelia.

"Okay," She said simply, after patiently listening to me explain my reasons. "If there's no major problems, how often will you come back?"

"It really depends on what I find out there. But the bare minimum would be a few weeks because of how long it takes to build up the energy for each trip. You're taking this pretty calmly," I said.

"I had hoped it wouldn't be so soon, but I was kind of expecting it."

"Really, why?"

"It was just a feeling. A couple of small things, I guess. I wasn't really sure, but…that day when Amelia didn't seem to hate Paige so much anymore, and she was kind of...nicer? And more…focused? She was also acting a bit differently towards you. Like she was sad about something. At first I thought—um, I mean it just seemed like something happened between you two. And then Paige joined us properly, and you were talking about Scion. About how the strategy you knew might not work because you brought that knowledge here, and how we had to prepare for what happens if we can't win, how humanity can survive. That's kind of when it clicked. I didn't really believe it before, but after that conversation, it seemed like you were pretty serious about being from another plane of existence. And I guess I kind of thought that you…wouldn't give up that easily, so you must be planning something else. And maybe the answer wasn't in this plane of existence, so you'd have to leave to find it. Maybe you didn't want to mention it because you didn't want to give us false hope, like if you weren't confident you could find a way to win. And you probably told Amelia about it back then, that's why she seemed sad. You always tell her things first."

"I hope you aren't upset about that. That I told her before you, I mean."

"I'm not. You guys were closer even before I joined. And you live together even when you aren't heroing, so it's natural to talk more." There was no sign of any emotion on her face, but these days she often forgot to move her true body's facial muscles properly, so it didn't mean that she wasn't upset.

"That's not it. I just wanted to give her more time to adjust and come to terms with it. You're much better at staying composed and pushing past difficult situations. The truth is, I think you'd make a better leader overall. Amelia's got the potential to grow into it eventually, because she persists on things long past the point where anyone else would have given up or gone mad, but you? You just naturally have the kind of personality to take charge and shoulder responsibility."

"You really think so?"

"Yes. The shards are usually pretty good at matching powers to host personalities. That's why you've got a Master power that can work on such massive scale. And if I never showed up here, you still would have gone on to do great things. I'm confident that you'll take good care of CRUCIBLE while I'm gone."

"Thanks. I'll do my best."

Before I informed Paige about my departure, Agatetron gave her another revelation. This was after she had been informed about the shards, Scion, and my own status as being from a different plane, as part of her initiation into the CRUCIBLE inner circle.

" **As His mortal incarnation foretold, the broken warrior is the harbinger of the end of days. The broken warrior god is but one of three lesser gods who have come to the earth in this plane. One has hidden itself in the deeps, one has fallen by the treachery of the first, and the last one has broke by the loss of the second. The broken warrior shall shed its divinity and become the abomination of desolation, and it shall bring terrible tribulation to all. The earth will sink and the seas shall boil and there shall be great terror and destruction, famine and pestilence, and none shall be safe from its wrath. The host of the Lord shall meet the broken warrior god in battle, and His great armies shall be led by the incarnation and the two chosen champions. Upon the Lord's victory, the champions shall rule in His stead with power temporal as reward for their labour. And you shall hold the power spiritual as His messenger and voice to proclaim the Lord's dominion over the earth as the great god exalted above all other gods, and crown the champions as queens exalted above all other kings and queens.** "

"How will I know who are the chosen champions, O' great seraph?" She asked, kneeling in supplication.

" **They are already known to you, the shaper and the administrator, and the incarnation has bid you assist them in raising the host. The incarnation shall soon depart from this plane, for the Lord must gather strength from other planes for the great battle to come, and you must ensure that the champions do not waver from their destined path.** "

"Yes, I will carry out the Lord's command!"

That made my own conversation with her much simpler.

In the end, when all was said and done, I stood beside the Amphibious All-Purpose Vehicle (AAPV) built to carry some supplies and equipment, and made to fit within the space of the Kaleidoscape tunnel.

The majority was conventional technology based and demonstrably did not rely on Wormvoid physics, but I did bring some useful Tinkertech and a copy of Offensive Bias along as well. In particular, I was bringing a pocket dimension inventory system and mobile base based on Dodge, Leet, and Chariot's tech, that further stored a lot more things inside.

If the pocket dimensions survived transit between planes, and the Tinkertech also worked, I would have some incredibly powerful stuff to use. But if not, then at least I could fall back on military grade hardware.

While I wanted to be as prepared as possible, I simply couldn't fit that much stuff in the estimated size of the tunnel, which, like all things related to the Kaleidoscape, had a random component and so my stuff might get destroyed in transit.

It wasn't possible to bring enough equipment that Offensive Bias could build a self-sustaining industry based off of only conventional tech, so assuming that Tinkertech didn't work, what I had was what I'd be stuck with, unless I happened to arrive in another modern or higher tech world in which I could buy more equipment.

"I guess it's time," I said. Amelia, Taylor, and Paige stood behind me. We were gathered on the M2 Dark Side Moon Base, where only Amelia's shard powers still worked, and watching the screen that showed the last objective to be checked off before my departure.

"Alright, Offensive Bias, go for it."

" _All systems normal. Firing._ "

A notification and tracker showed a missile launching from the base's Portal Targeting Platform, right into a portal that opened through to the empty space between Earth M2 and its moon, and kept going for a short distance before the first portal pair closed and the missile entered yet another portal whose other side was in the Portal Targeting Platform again, but layered over a third portal that led straight to the target on Earth Bet. In this way, the portal on Earth Bet would merely show dark space on the other side instead of the missile's true source on the M2 moon base.

On the video screen that was showing Jack Slash leisurely walking down an empty street with the S9 following behind, a portal was shown opening momentarily right behind Jack, and in the next frame there was nothing left of him as Bakuda's disintegration warhead scattered his body into dust.

" _Target eliminated._ "

The remaining members of the Slaughterhouse 9 looked dumbfounded and paused. They looked at each other, unsure of what to do, while Bonesaw inspected the area where the glowing white rectangle—the back side of the portal—had appeared and blocked their view of Jack then disappeared just as quickly. She was joined by the other members of the S9, who started looking around, perhaps in search of enemies, or perhaps confused as to where Jack might have disappeared to.

It was terribly anticlimactic, and I too was confused.

Jack Slash was so vital to the original storyline that everything would be derailed. There had been theories that the Simurgh had planned out the way to defeat Scion, and if that was true, Jack should have been a part of that plan. I had used a few tricks to try and overcome her precognition, but it was still a bit of a shock that she didn't do anything to stop me at any point, from building the moon base until now.

I also thought Cauldron might have been secretly supporting Jack Slash. Considering that the prophecy about the end of the world came long before the end, it struck me as very strange that Cauldron didn't just kill him.

Unfortunately I didn't know the exact contents of the prophecy and Dinah Alcott seemed to be… _malfunctioning_ , for lack of a better word. In discarded timelines where I tried to persuade and force some answers out of her, it was as if she didn't have a parahuman power. Her headaches and strange visions seemed to be actually unrelated to a power, though her brain did have a Corona and Gemma. I could chalk it up to Coil's power not properly simulating it, but I thought he was supposed to be able to get useful—if sometimes slightly inaccurate—answers from her in discarded timelines.

Teacher's blocking devices might have caused interference as well, but that was an unsatisfying explanation, considering that these timeline experiments with her were done on Earth Bet in unblocked areas.

All this strangeness was setting off alarms in my ahead, loudly telling me, ' _Time to get out of Worm before your string of good luck ends!_ '

Oh wait, that was just Agate.

"It's done. The man who would have convinced Scion to destroy the world is dead. Scion will still attack eventually, but at least we've bought some time," I said, turning around to face the three who would lead CRUCIBLE in my absence.

"From here on, it'll be up to you three to make sure CRUCIBLE is ready for any other threats. Build up strength, recruit critical people, and refer to my notes with Offensive Bias when necessary. Don't be afraid to use Coil extensively. He's good for not only his power, but his own competence and intelligence as well. But above all, stay alive."

In fact, with Cranial's tech, it was now much safer to use Coil because we could even review his timeline memories after the fact.

"We will," said Taylor.

"You too," said Amelia.

"We won't disappoint you!" said Paige.

After a group hug, I wasted no time getting into the AAPV.

Offensive Bias piloted the vehicle forwards into a layered portal leading to a vacuum chamber. The air was vented, then Agate opened the next portal into the space beyond the barrier, past the moon's upper atmosphere.

We drove forward into the darkness of space only illuminated by the stars, and the portal shut behind us as we floated.

' _ARMP Engaged. User Travel initializing. Destination selected: Random by Shortest Distance. 10 seconds to construct pathway. Please hold.'_

This time when we shifted, I saw the universe flicker as if it was an illusion. Everything disappeared and I was in a space devoid of anything.

There was only darkness and I couldn't see myself or feel anything.

That feeling was almost like the float tanks I used for deep meditation, but it lasted only a moment until there was a single dot that expanded into a blinding white light.

 **END OF PART 1**

O O O

 **IMPORTANT NOTICE:** The main Worm segment ends here, and the **story continues in the sequel** , which you can find on my profile now as " **Any Means Necessary: Rising** ".

There is additionally a quest version of the sequel running on Sufficient Velocity forums where readers can have some input into the story, taking on the role of Agate advising Kaleidus. See my profile for the link.


End file.
